Grammy 2025 : best contemporary instrumental album -ehdokas.
This is the latest work by prodigious pianist Taylor Aigusti, following his Grammy-winning work in 2022. Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens, Terence Blanchard, Ben Wendel, Julian Large, and others participate in this album. Eleven years after his 2010 masterpiece "Daylight at Midnight," which became a benchmark for contemporary jazz, Taylor Aigusti is at the peak of his rich career with "Tree Falls" (2021), which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2022.
Taylor Aigusti has completed an even more substantial body of work. In addition to his work with his own trio, quartet, and large ensemble, as a member of regular touring bands such as Chris Botti, Eric Harland's Voyager, Gretchen Parlato, and Kendrick Scott's Oracle, as well as touring and recording Over the past 30 years, he has performed with Joshua Redman, Sting, Esperanza Spalding, Chick Corea, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Becca Stevens, and many others, making him one of the leading contemporary jazz pianists and composers. This album is a further development of his previous work, "Tree Falls," in which he freely incorporates strings, wind instruments, guitars, and other instruments to create a grand contemporary jazz world.
The way in which he plays piano and rhodes, and adds melodies that have just the right amount of smoothness and pop feel to them, shows the richness of his career. The tracks by singers of different colors (Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens, and Lisa Fischer), which fit the songs perfectly, are also worth listening to. In addition to the standards by Rodgers-Hartz (M11) and Jimmy Van Heusen (Japanese bonus track M13), the superb string ensemble arrangements on about half of the recordings are the result of not only many years of experience in leading ensembles, but also of a wide range of experience with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and other orchestras. The superb string ensemble arrangements on about half of the recordings reflect not only the ensemble's many years of experience in leading ensembles, but also their accumulated skills in performing with and providing music for various symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony.The participating artists are well versed in Taylor's sound and include Gretchen Parlato (vo), Becca Stevens (vo), Lisa Fisher (vo), Terence Blanchard (tp), Ben Wendell (ts, ss), Dayna Stevens (ts), Julian Large (g), Harish Raghavan (b), David Zinyard (b), Kendrick Scott (ds), Oscar Seaton (ds) and others.
