ArtistInfo

The Orchestra Feat. Tuva Semmingsen
Money

Album DK 2014 on Gateway Music label
Jazz (Contemporary Jazz)

Liner Notes: "From the very start The Orchestra has been all about original music. This story has it’s beginning in Copenhagen sometime in the nineties, specifically at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The two music students Jesper Riis and Henrik Frisk started the band based on a common need for a musical workshop where they could test their arrangements and freely explore all kinds of ideas. Soon enough, events would take an unexpected turn. It was a rare debut that fits well into our story. Now it was the summer of 1992, and they were still busy in the rehearsal room. Suddenly they found them- selves at the festival in Montreux. Someone had accidentally opened the door, which turned out leading to the world stage. Ever since they have traveled together through many different musical landscapes. The Orchestra is a close-knit unit as we encounter them today. They are about to converge with mezzo- soprano Tuva Semmingsen, but we have time to briefly sneak past them through the door to take a look at the room. It’s not a guest room, but rather turns out to be a workroom. We only have enough time to see that there are lots of note sheets for melodies in both French and English, that span from different periods and genres, before the singer arrives accompanied by Peter Fuglsang and Jakob Riis. Then after that we hide in order to hear what is going on. Apparently the program is not ready to put in the hands of the singer. Is this really how an artist from the Royal Danish Opera wants it? Yes apparently. This will be cooperatively built from the ground up. The collection of songs that are finally agreed upon has since been moved into the orchestra’s workshop. In some simpler cases, the colors have faded somewhat over the years and were in need of restoration. In other cases a hole has been knocked into the wall to frame a new window. This is a case of well-known compositions drawn from various shelves of the twentieth century basements. It’s been the task for Jakob Riis to decant the material and distin- guish the songs from their dregs. When we meet them, they have undergone a health cure and have learned to sing in the language of The Orchestra. According to an old Japanese saying there is a breath of life; when you say “Inochi no iki wo fuki Komu” it means breathing life into something. There is an additional saying; “it is when a doll’s eyes are painted on, that it comes to life”. It is the last stroke of the brush that makes everything come alive. This last analogy is particularly true for the version of “God Bless The Child”, which could be called the center of the album, and that has formed the project’s definitive starting point. Here, as in the rest of the reper- toire, it is the meeting between Tuva Semmingsens sensitive mezzo-soprano and the joint voice of the orchestra that represents that last stroke that allows us to hear the music for the first time. And we understand that The Orchestra is still all about original music, no matter where the source originates from. And then there’s the question of the title. About this one can say that there is a consistent theme in all of the texts, and that it’s built on a solid financial foundation! If we can expect anything from The Orchestra it would be that we can never know where they will take us next." Henrik Jöhnemark, Malmö, October 2014

Musicians

	The Orchestra , album by
	Tuva Semmingsen voc, *1975 NO vocals, album by
	Nils Davidsen b, *1966 DK acoustic bass, acoustic bass, solo
	Kasper Wagner as, bs, DK alto saxophone, alto saxophone, solo
	Peter Fuglsang as, cl, *1968 DK alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, clarinet, solo
	Jan Harbeck ts, cl, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, solo
	Martin Andersen vn, drums
	Per Gade g, electric guitar, electric guitar, solo
	Simon Toldam p, *1979 piano, piano, solo
	Anders Banke ts, cl, *1971 tenor saxophone, flute
	Pernille Bévort fl, tenor saxophone, flute
	Niels Gerhardt tb, tu, trombone
	Steen Hansen tb, DK trombone
	Jakob Riis tb, *1964 trombone, arranged by, mixed by, mastered by
	Klaus Löhrer tb, *1970 DK trombone, tuba
	Hendrik Jørgensen tr, fh, *1965 trumpet, trumpet, solo
	Jesper Riis tr, fh, DK trumpet
	Maj Berit Guassora tr, *1974 trumpet
	Tobias Wiklund tr, cor, fh, trumpet

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