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Brett Gold

Brett Gold has pursued an unusual path to his first big band recording with The Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra, Dreaming Big, released on GoldFox Records and available June 16, 2017, on CD Baby, Amazon and iTunes.  

Born in 1956 and raised in Pikesville, MD, a suburb of Baltimore, Brett began studying trombone in elementary school, and quickly reached a level of proficiency that enabled him to play with a hand-selected nationwide student orchestra at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center.  But his life changed forever when he discovered the music of Charlie Parker and the world of jazz.

Taking the advice of his trombone teacher, who suggested to Brett that if there was anything else he could possibly do in life he should not become a musician, Brett finished high school a year early and attended the University of Rochester as a double major in History and Film Studies, graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  While at the University of Rochester he was able to continue his musical studies at the UR's Eastman School of Music, playing with one of its nationally-recognized jazz ensembles.

After college, Brett trained to become a lawyer.  He received a J.D. from Columbia University Law School and an LL.M. in tax law from New York University Law School, and subsequently spent 25 years practicing international and corporate tax law, first as an associate and then as a partner, with a major international law firm and a Big Four accounting firm.  Brett put away his horn for a decade to concentrate on his career.

But the jazz's siren call was too strong for Brett.  In the early '90s he went back to the trombone, studying first with the legendary studio and jazz trombonist Wayne Andre and later with Jack Gale, and started composing original material as part of his studies. He eventually recorded three privately distributed CDs of original jazz compositions.

In late 2004 Brett decided to follow his dream of arranging for big band and began working with a series of teachers, including Pete McGuinness, Neal Kirkwood and David Berger. He eventually won admission to the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers Workshop under the direction of Mike Abene, Jim McNeely and Mike Holober, and over the years developed a book of more than two dozen arrangements, the best of which are presented in his debut big band CD, Dreaming Big.

Brett approaches his composing and arranging with a particular mindset.  He describes it as trying to marry the sounds of Ravel and Debussy with the logic of Bach or, to analogize to modern big band arranging, combining Gil Evans with Bill Holman.  Based in part on his study of narrative structure in film back in his college days, Brett pays particular attention to the form of his compositions and arrangements, and generally tries to develop an arrangement out of the song itself.  For example, he might interpose an interlude or background riff based on a particular rhythm contained in a bar or two of the composition, or use a repeated harmonic device derived from the initial statement of a song.  But whatever he does to expand a simple one minute, 32 bar song into a complex six minute arrangement, he always tries to inject what some literary critics term "organicity" — the whole arrangement seems to grow organically from the source material.  And whatever mood he tries to evoke — whether playful, somber, angry or nostalgic — he wants the listener to enjoy the listening experience, to be fully engaged throughout and, in the end, to be satisfied both emotionally and intellectually.

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The Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra Debuts With "Dreaming Big," Due June 16

The Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra Debuts With "Dreaming Big," Due June 16

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

The June 16th release of Dreaming Big (GoldFox Records), which marks the recording debut of the Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra and features the compositions of Brett Gold, illuminates a most intriguing jazz odyssey. A star trombonist in high school in his native Baltimore, Gold was steered away from a music career by his parents as well as his trombone teacher, of all people. Gold became an attorney and went on to achieve formidable success in the field of ...

Here's what John Fedchock, two-time Grammy nominee, virtuoso trombonist, composer/arranger, and leader of the John Fedchock New York Big Band, says about The Brett Gold New York Jazz Orchestra's album Dreaming Big:

"Dreaming Big is a creative outing that not only breaks new imaginative ground, but also respects that which has come before. Brett Gold’s composing brings a fresh perspective, utilizing a post-modernist approach that also preserves essential elements sustained throughout the jazz canon. This is not an easy task, but the strength in Brett’s writing gives his music a particularly personalized and unified identity. From works derived via tone rows or nurtured through spiritual inspiration, to others infused with the blues or fueled by the energy of Latin jazz, Dreaming Big gives the listener a special tour inclusive of the gamut of styles, colors and emotions that a true jazz orchestra is built to sustain.

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Dreaming Big

GoldFox Records
2017

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