Madre Vaca - Winterreise (2020)

Madre Vaca is a collective of jazz musicians exploring a wide spectrum of improvisational music. Jazz is their medium, and the recording studio is their laboratory. Their album, ‘Winterreise’, which just dropped is an arrangement of ten songs for jazz octet from Franz Schubert’s hauntingly beautiful song cycle of the same name. Winterreise (pronounced Vin-Tuh-Rize-Uh) is a German word meaning Winter Journey. Almost 200 years ago, Franz Schubert was in the throes of a disease that would ultimately claim his life as he penned the gorgeous and haunting song cycle found on this compilation. Winterreise is a story of a young man who takes leave from the home of his beloved in the middle of the night, in the dead of winter, unlikely to ever see her again. The album is a testament to both the timeless beauty of Franz Schubert’s music as well as the elasticity and depth of jazz music. Madre Vaca’s interpretation of Winterreise magnifies the timelessness and versatility of Schubert’s music. All thanks to Benjamin Shorstein, who is responsible for the arrangement on the project and also oversees the collective.