Time Within Itself

This big band recording is notable for its arranger, Dr. Jack Cooper. Cooper recently released a revelatory Jack Cooper: Mists -Charles Ives For Jazz Orchestra (Planet Arts, 2014), which was the "most recommended" recording at All About Jazz in 2014. Cooper is a professor of music at the University of Memphis and he properly embraces the heritage of that great Southern City. Cooper's arrangements are unique in their brassy "wall-of-sound" quality. For pure orchestration, Cooper has no match as evidenced on drummer Mike Waldrop's most recent Origin Recording. Cooper is a star here in the same way that arrangers were in 1949 on Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool Recordings. There is much to like here.