Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra

We Are MTO

(MOWO)

Trumpeter Bernstein’s big band plays post-modern jazz with infectious enthusiasm and unmistakable affection. An entertaining and insightful mix of genre-mashing, high spirits and a healthy dose of humor keeps the album perking along at an effervescent clip.

Delivered with a knowing wink, incongruities in Bernstein’s arrangements induce a smile, but there’s enough intelligence and craftsmanship behind them to prevent them from being played just for yuks. For instance, “We Are MTO” layers Ellingtonian horn work over a swampy funk groove to produce a new kind of earthy elegance. A read of Count Basie and Lester Young’s “Dickie’s Dream” weds Kansas City swing with the two-guitar drive of the Hot Club of Paris to generate a doubly swinging groove. Parallels between collective soloing in Chicago-style swing of the ’20s and modal free-jazz of the ’60s hold together the seemingly clashing parts of Preston Jackson’s “It’s Tight, Jim.”

Band members are equally adept at salting their period-authentic solos with incongruous elements that lift them out of mere imitation. Peter Apfelbaum’s soprano-sax phrases grate against the bouncy beat of Cecil Scott’s “In a Corner” in a way that would have never happened 70 years ago when the tune was written.  Ben Allison slaps his bass and walks with a hard swing during his solo on Don Redman’s “Paducah,” but ends it with some strumming and sound manipulation from another era. And guitarists Doug Wamble and Matt Munisteri inject some jarring dissonances into their duet on “Dickie’s Dream” that would have been unthinkable in Basie’s heyday. A fluid and melodic soloist on trumpet and slide trumpet, Bernstein presides over the rollicking proceedings like a circus ringmaster. Fun stuff. – Ed Hazell