Richard Peaslee & William Russo - Virtuosity: A Contemporary Look (1991)

Returning for their second GM co-release, Dick Peaslee and Bill Russo celebrate the evolving role of the soloist in contemporary, jazz-inflected concerto and chamber settings.

Russo’s The English Concerto was commissioned in the early 1960s by Yehudi Menuhin and is performed here by the great Stevyn Staryk and the London Jazz Orchestra, the group which gave its 1963 premiere.

Peaslee’s Chicago Concerto was commissioned in the late ’60s for Gerry Mulligan and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. Here it is given glorious voice by the extraordinary Gary Smulyan and the Manhattan School of Music Ensemble.

Peaslee conceived both the Nightsongs and The Devil’s Herald with smaller forces in mind — the former for trumpet soloist with strings and harp, the latter for tuba soloist with horn quartet and percussion. These works are brilliantly rendered by the musicians for which they were crafted: Philip A Smith, principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic, and the venerable tuba virtuoso Harvey Phillips.