The album “Cik labi” recorded this summer and recently presented by the Latvian Radio big band, Aijas Vītoliņas and Andras Buiķs is also available for listeners – for now only on the Internet platform “YouTube”, but soon it will be introduced on other streaming sites as well.
The album contains ten original compositions by the grand master of percussion instruments Andras Buiķas (of which the author is extremely proud!) with the words of Leon Amoliņš, Agnes Rutkēvičas, Normunda Beļskas and Jānis Damrozes, performed by vocalist Aija Vītoliņa. The author of the interesting cover of the album is “pixelart” artist Artūrs Bunts.
The project was initially presented as a concert program “Feel the Groove!”, prepared by Andris Buiķis especially for the Latvian Radio big band. “The album is rich in harmonies, experimental and technically challenging, especially for a big band, but does not depart from the classical values of jazz and rhythmic music. The songs have pronounced rhythmic and “groovy” melodies, which in their feelings seem to be tied to a certain period of music, the 80s, but definitely do not express nostalgia,” says the album annotation.
This explanation is quite appropriate, because initially, when listening to the album, this wandering in the regions of pop music of the 80s and even 70s (one could even say – “restaurant music”) seems quite incomprehensible. The Latvian Radio big band musicians played to their heart’s content, but the fact that they are great masters of their craft does not seem to be necessary for anyone to tell. Well, the trump card for everything is the great Aija Vītoliņa! From the sound material included in the album, the most recommended compositions are the energetic “For One”, the slightly different “Laujies” and the 21st century jazz-like “Dance Me To The End Of Love”, also the previously heard “The day that will be”.
Andris Buiķis: “I’m “on you” with challenges, that’s why I immediately agreed to the opportunity to write music for the Latvian Radio big band, which I had never done before. I’m more of an instrumental music fan, I’m a little fan of Buddy Rich’s big band, more of his drumming, but I didn’t want to compose anything classical, no swing. We have got a clean “groove”, harmony and songs sung in Latvian. About Aija Vītoliņa’s participation – I could not call her at all, because I knew that she would agree to participate anyway! Song after song, until the end we sang ten whole pieces!”
2023-12-18 18:06:03
#REVIEW #Latvian #Radio #Big #Band #Aija #Vītoliņa #Andris #Buiķis #good
