Nimble Digits by Geoff Stradling & the StradBand

Geoff Stradling & the StradBand

Nimble Digits

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Origin Records
UPC: 0805558289125
Catnr: ORIGIN 82891
Release date: 07 March 2025
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Label
Origin Records

UPC
0805558289125

Catalogue number
ORIGIN 82891

Release date
07 March 2025

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Los Angeles-based composer/arranger/keyboardist Geoff Stradling has spent most of his decades-long career focused on the success of other’s films, TV shows and albums he’s been associated with, including many years as Music Director of the Golden Globe Awards. All along, his StradBand acted as a workshop for his concepts and a collective project for many of his colleagues. With Nimble Digits, the band takes center stage, highlighting the wide breadth of the modern jazz orchestra—from the styles originated by Gil Evans, to post-Miles fusion, to Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian influences. He wields his ensemble the way the best bandleaders always have, playing to individual musicians’ strengths while maintaining a strong and personal harmonic, contrapuntal, and textural thematic throughout. L.A.’s musical talent pool is dozens deep at every chair, and many of its brightest stars are here, with thirty-one musicians bringing Stradling’s music to life.

Der in Los Angeles lebende Komponist, Arrangeur und Keyboarder Geoff Stradling hat den größten Teil seiner jahrzehntelangen Karriere damit verbracht, den Erfolg von Filmen, Fernsehsendungen und Alben anderer zu unterstützen, an denen er mitgewirkt hat, darunter viele Jahre als Musikdirektor der Golden Globe Awards. Seine StradBand diente ihm stets als Werkstatt für seine Konzepte und als Gemeinschaftsprojekt für viele seiner Kollegen. Bei Nimble Digits steht die Band im Mittelpunkt und zeigt die große Bandbreite des modernen Jazzorchesters auf - von den von Gil Evans begründeten Stilen über Post-Miles-Fusion bis hin zu afro-kubanischen und afro-brasilianischen Einflüssen. Er führt sein Ensemble so, wie es die besten Bandleader schon immer getan haben, indem er die Stärken der einzelnen Musiker ausspielt und gleichzeitig eine starke und persönliche harmonische, kontrapunktische und texturale Thematik beibehält. Der Pool an musikalischen Talenten in L.A. ist an jedem Stuhl dutzendfach vorhanden, und viele der hellsten Sterne sind hier vertreten, mit einunddreißig Musikern, die Stradlings Musik zum Leben erwecken.

Artist(s)

Geoff Stradling (keyboard)

Composer and pianist Geoff Stradling started piano lessons at age six - his mother being his first teacher. By 13 he had run through the piano instructors in his hometown - Bellingham Washington, and began a biweekly trip to Seattle to study at The Cornish School, where coincidentally his maternal grandmother had taught years before.
Passionate about music, Geoff founded a big band as a freshman in high school and wrote for it for four years. By the time he was a sophomore in college he had won a national composition contest sponsored by the National Association of Jazz Educators.
At age twenty, he moved to Europe, and soaked in the European experience - food, wine, melody. Melody! This was so different from America. In his homeland the emphasis was on harmony and rhythm, here melody was king. This would get into his soul and become a part of his life and, a part of his music.
In 1984 Geoff moved to Los Angeles. L.A. brought work in every corner of the music business, and exposure to many styles. He would write feature film scores; Latin music commercials for hispanic TV; compose 300 cues for Entertainment Tonight; arrange and compose for the American Music Awards and spend years as Musical Director for the Golden Globes; play on the controversial and multi platinum selling Ritual de lo Habitual for the rock band Jane's Addiction; perform with Quincy Jones and Mel Torme; record with (and arrange for) Ernestine Anderson on her grammy nominated Blues, Dues & Love News.
Along the way Geoff focused more and more on writing, eventually letting playing go entirely. Composers spend all day locked in a room alone however, and this got old after five years. He needed interaction and the creative outlet of playing again. "Music is meant to be made with and shared with others." It took a couple of years and a new piano, and in 2005, he went back to pursuing the dual career of pianist and composer.
By 2010, he had written a lot of new music for Big Band, but the only way to get it played was to start a band, so at 55 years old he started a big band with some of L.A.'s finest. The StradBand got together weekly for a year before it performed live, and it's been performing and workshopping ever since.

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