For those unaware, Wisdom: The Music of Rich Derosa at North Texas brings together a decade of original compositions and arrangements by GRAMMY-nominated composer and arranger Richard DeRosa, performed by the University of North Texas One and Two O’Clock Lab Bands across recordings spanning 2017 to 2025.

A full professor and director of jazz composition and arranging at UNT, DeRosa presents this collection as a document of personal creative work and a testament to the extraordinary level of performance that has defined the One O’Clock Lab Band across generations.

The ten pieces range from the Gershwin-inspired Al-Go-Rhythm and the Weather Report-inflected Lines and Spaces to the tender tribute Juris Diction, the celebratory Fanfare for an Uncommon Man, and the quietly philosophical title track, which reflects on the role that accumulated experience plays in an artist’s creative life.

Featuring vocalists, featured soloists, and full big band across multiple years of the ensemble, Wisdom is both a portrait of an artist at the height of his craft and a showcase for one of jazz education’s most storied institutions.

1. Al-Go-Rhythm: A 21st-Century Take on a Gershwin Tune
2. Birds of a Feather...
3. Roundabout
4. Lines and Spaces
5. The Man I Love
6. Wisdom
7. Juris Diction
8. Darkness Within
9. The Down-Low
10. Fanfare for an Uncommon Man

The Grammy-nominated composer, and full professor at the University of North Texas and the director of jazz composition and arranging, opens his affectingly authentic new recording on the scintillating Al-Go-Rhythm: A 21st-Century Take on a Gershwin Tune and the veritably cinematic Birds of a Feather... and then we are brought forth the gently jaunty Roundabout, the upbeat and vivacious Lines and Spaces and the silky smooth The Man I Love.

Along next is the swirling title cut Wisdom, before the recording delightfully allows us into the worlds of Juris Diction, the twinkling Darkness Within, the set rounding out on the low slung ambiance of The Down-Low, coming to a close on the emboldened Fanfare for an Uncommon Man.

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