I have never been interested in releasing a big band CD (excuse me, they are jazz orchestras these days) because I am not interested in big band
music. I am interested in music. I am interested in vibrations, messages, and, as with my other projects, I am interested in producing something that has some relevance to human beings. I have said that I would only be interested in fronting a big band if the music transcended the usual form. I believe that this music can do that, but only if the players have the imagination to go beyond the norm. I have played some of this music with a number of bands who werent up to the task. Either they didn't have the talent or the enthusiasm to reach another level with this music. The BJO has both. I am proud to have this music released with these fine musicians. Most of them are fierce creators in their own right, which is why this band is different from most. Nobody in this band just"mails it in. They all wish to sometime, someday, create music that we ve never heard before. Those are the kind of cats I like to work with. I've refused to release this music before. Now that the BJO and I have found each other, Kenny Werner

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Sometimes the process of making jazz is as simple, direct and profound
as Louis Armstrong once described it: "Take a scale and make it wail
Other times, when the composers vision is more far-reaching and the
arranger's canvas is greater in scope, it's a different matter entirely. In
the case of veteran pianist-composer-arranger Kenny Werners
magically potent Naked in the Cosmos, his first-ever large-scale
offering (in collaboration with the pristinely-honed Brussels Jazz
Orchestra), it's a case of taking several scales and making them wail
simultaneously and contrapuntally with generous doses of dissonance,
polytonality and multi-hued impressionism thrown into the heady mix
I'd be tempted to label it Third Stream if it didn't swing so damn hard.

With this major work, Werner has crafted five transcendent suites of
music that transport us from evocative ambiance to exultant highs,
from serene solo piano introspection to triumphantly swaggering big
band explosions, from noirish cool to funky turbulence. The references
here are clear- Gil Evans' futuristic arrangements for the early 40s
Claude Thornhill band, the brilliant Gil Evans-Miles Davis collaborations
on 1949s Birth of the Cool and 1957's Miles Ahead, the innovative work
of Stan Kentons most ambitious arrangers through the late '40s and
early 50s (Pete Rugolo, Bob Graettinger, Shorty Rogers, Bill Russo),
classical modernists like Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith with
lusions to contemporary big band composer-arrangers like Jaco
Pastorius, Bob Mintzer and Maria Schneider along the way. But
Werners magnificently moody and inherently swinging
transformations have a logic and allure all their own.

The title track is an ambitious 12-minute suite that keeps moving and
shape-shifting from sparsely atmospheric opening statements
through its fugue-like second movement, jauntily swinging big band-ish
third movement to an angular, highly syncopated funk fugue (a la Steve
Coleman Five Elements) that features strong solo contributions from
trombonist Marc Godfroid and baritone saxophonist Bo van der Werf
This wildly robust suite concludes in dynamic fashion with tenor
saxophonist Bart Defoort blowing heroically on a driving pulse
The oddly affecting"Use Me"summons up a slew of nostalgic
memories-Leonard Bernstein's"Cool "fugue from West Side Story
Jerry Goldsmith's noirish scores for early 60s episodes of"The
Twilight Zone, "Elmer Bernstein's jazzy score for the gritty 1957 drama
The Sweet Smell of Success, the cool work of Charles Mingus' Jazz
Composers Workshop. I pictured Kenny wearing shades with cigarette
smoke curling up around his black beret during his soulful take-your-
time piano solo here. Trumpeter Nico Schepers's plunger solo adds to
the ambiance of this moody hipster vehicle which sounds like an eerie
reharmonization of Miles Davis'"Freddie Freeloader" while also
sporting references to"Miles Ahead".

The BJO hits its stride on"All That", which covers all the basses from
its buoyantly lyrical opening strains to a dynamic peak capped by a
passionate alto sax solo from Dieter Limbourg, then moving on to a
surging swing section behind Marc Godfroid's expressive and
burnished-toned trombone solo which leads the Belgian juggernaut to
a triumphant resolution of pumped-up shout choruses from the brass
and precision hits from the relentlessly 'on it' drummer Martijn Vink.

Werner's gorgeous arranged ballad"Portrait of Jenny" is a dreamy
vehicle for alto saxophonist Frank Vaganée, who luxuriates in his own
luscious tone before shifting gears during a flag-waving crescendo,
double-timing and blowing with Cannonball-like conviction over the band.

The glorious tone poem"Sasumi"-- possibly the most ambitous piece
here and certainly the longest at close to 20 minutes-carries a grand,
dramatic sweep marked by cinematic sections, ambient free
interludes, swirling psychedelia and hard-driving swing excursions
that highlight ferocious Brecker-esque contributions from tenor
saxophonist Kurt Van Herck and a McCoy-inspired piano solo from
Werner. From that point alto saxophonist Frank Vaganée brings us in
his solo from partly passioned melodic lines through his unbelievable
musically whirlwind kind of playing. After that Bart Defoort takes the
last beautiful played solo part on tenorsaxophone to the end of this
ingenious piece.

Ladle on some edgy, distortion-laced synth tones and textures against
a slamming groove in one brief movement and you've got Stan Kenton
meets Medeski, Martin Wood -- the thinking man's jam band.

Theres a whole universe of music to savor here. And maestro Werner
serves it up in typically revealing fashion. Hence the title.
Bill Milkowski

Bill Milkowski is a regular contributor to Jazz Times and Jazziz and is
also the author of "JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco
Pastorius" (Backbeat Books)