#4507, With Maria Schneider, 2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Composer and conductor Maria Schneider has worked with everyone from Dawn Upshaw to David Bowie, helped pioneer crowdfunding, and has won seven Grammys in both the jazz and classical categories. Her 18-piece big band, Maria Schneider Orchestra, has been making music since 1994, and with her Grammy-winning 2020 double album, Data Lords, she was also a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Maria Schneider joins us to present some music from Data Lords.
The work is divided into thematic halves which reflect how she has been impacted by two very polarized worlds: "The Digital World" and, as a yin to the yang, "The Natural World." “The Digital World” is inspired by Big Data and her frustration with it – how it clutters the mind, seduces and exploits, and ultimately isolates. But as a counter, there’s “The Natural World,” the organic one which clears the mind, nurtures, truly connects, and inspires questions.
Schneider says of the project, “All I know is that I’m searching for sonic beauty in all of it, as well as searching for my own sense of balance between these two opposing worlds.”
The Maria Schneider Orchestra was once called Maria Schneider JAZZ Orchestra. But she changed it so that people wouldn’t come to the music with expectations of a certain style. Entirely fitting then that Schneider’s work has a classical sense of orchestration; but like Duke Ellington, her compositions are tailored to the talents of the musicians in her band, not just writing for the instrument itself.
The selections from Data Lords on this New Sounds will be heard in full during the 11PM broadcast. The on-demand edition will feature shortened versions of some of the works because, as she says, expanding on one of the themes of the double album, having her music available online for mass consumption in the digital age does not benefit artists like her, as they are not paid fairly. “The free market for musicians has been completely annihilated,” she says. But for this on-demand program, she has allowed us to hear extended excerpts from several works, and the complete track “Sputnik,” which won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4507, with Maria Schneider (First Aired 6/11/2021)
ARTIST: Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: Sputnik, excerpt [1:10]
RECORDING: Data Lords - 2 record set
SOURCE: ArtistShare
INFO: mariaschneider.com/home/albuminfo?id=1083
ARTIST: Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: A World Lost, excerpt [5:19]
RECORDING: Data Lords - 2 record set
SOURCE: ArtistShare
INFO: mariaschneider.com/home/albuminfo?id=1083
ARTIST: David Bowie & Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime), excerpt [1:30]
RECORDING: Nothing Has Changed (the Best Of David Bowie) - 3 record set
SOURCE: Columbia Records/ Legacy
INFO: Released for Record Store Day, 2014, 10" Vinyl available at Amazon.co.uk /Discogs.com
Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music
ARTIST: Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: Sputnik [8:12] (full version)
RECORDING: Data Lords - 2 record set
SOURCE: ArtistShare
INFO: mariaschneider.com/home/albuminfo?id=1083
ARTIST: Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: Sanzenin, excerpt [3:59]
RECORDING: Data Lords - 2 record set
SOURCE: ArtistShare
INFO: mariaschneider.com/home/albuminfo?id=1083
ARTIST: Maria Schneider Orchestra
WORK: The Sun Waited For Me, excerpt [2:32]
RECORDING: Data Lords - 2 record set
SOURCE: ArtistShare
INFO: mariaschneider.com/home/albuminfo?id=1083
