Allyn Ferguson's Chamber Jazz Sextet - Borderland (2019)

With the Chamber Jazz Sextet, composer, leader and conductor Allyn Ferguson set out to do what he saw was going to be inevitable the bringing together of jazz and classical disciplines.

The Chamber Jazz Sextet hopes to catalyze this inevitable fusion of jazz and classical attitudes, he said. Toward this end, the members of the group, both individually and collectively, are making use of their every available musical knowledge in attempting to render music both meaningful and legitimate for the listener.

The results he achieved with this multi-instrumental group, in both the first half, where the focus is primarily on the sextet, and in the second, where it functions in an essentially accompanying role to poet Kenneth Patchens interpretations, are provocative, stimulating and rewarding. The group is well knit, with strong soloists and provided one of the most fascinating attempts of its kind to combine two musical worlds without compromising the inherent values and virtues of each.