Marty Ehrlich: The Long View

Twenty-one outstanding musicians contribute to The Long View, not all of them on every movement. On the different parts Ehrlich plays flute, soprano, alto, tenor sax and bass clarinet. The music constantly shifts, winding back and forth between various styles, textures, harmonies, and at times Roscoe Mitchell- or Ornette Coleman-inspired free jazz. Meat and potato blues slides into butt-kicking funk, on into hard swing and screaming collective improvisation. Several beautiful solos glue together the creative orchestral interplay of the instruments, all adding up to a unique listening experience.

Three movements (I, III and VI) feature eleven horns, with I and VI including bass and drums. Movement II spotlights Ehrlich’s soprano sax teamed with a string quartet of violin, viola, cello and bass. The album concludes with Postlude, a delicately interwoven duet between Ehrlich’s tenor sax and bass clarinet alongside Wayne Horvitz's piano.

Marty Ehrlich writes in the album liner notes that his “compulsion was to give expression to the place where beauties that should not be forgotten and beauties that have yet to be imagined collide, coexist and transform.” The Long View accomplishes that goal in spades.

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