With the release of his new CD, All Over The Map, Steve Kirby has taken his Oceanic Jazz Orchestra from the southern tip of Argentina to the northern lands of Nunavut and beyond. On Wednesday morning Steve joined Morning Light host Michael Wolch for a conversation about how he pulled it all together and what his inspirations were. Missed it? Watch the video here.

All Over the Map introduces the fresh and adventurous sound of Steve Kirby’s Oceanic Jazz Orchestra. Led by composer and jazz bassist Steve Kirby, OJO is a hybrid jazz-classical ensemble, with instruments like bassoon, oboe, pedal steel, and classical violin folded in alongside vibes, trumpet, saxophone, flute, and vocals. The compositions are equally far-ranging in their rhythmic and structural qualities, borrowing from jazz, folk, rock, hip hop, baroque, French impressionist, electronic, and tango.

 

 

This album is hard to capture in words. Think of it as a suite of postcards, or a collection of cultural fingerprints from various locations along the line that stretches from the southern tip of Argentina to the frozen reaches of Nunavut. This vertical line across the map informs the working title of the suite of compositions: The Longitude Project. Every composition is distinct in style and structure, and they range in tone from seduction to rage to stubborn hope. Paradoxically, all the discrete parts cohere because ultimately the album is an exploration of the challenge and richness of being alive, of the deep humanity we all share, no matter where we live and how different our customs and cultures.

All Over the Map is an important and timely album. In the face of rising fear, violence, and destruction, we need this clarion call to encounter one other with openness and appreciation, and to dance together in celebration of our shared humanity on this fragile and beautiful “speck of dust out in space”…

Now the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Steve Kirby has an international reputation as a jazz bassist, touring with Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, Cyrus Chestnut, and others. With OJO, he has assembled an extraordinary ensemble, featuring world-class players from both jazz and classical worlds.

All Over the Map features unforgettable performances from vibraphonist Warren Wolf (New York), bassoonists Paul Hanson (San Francisco) and Peter Lutek (Toronto), saxophonist Jon Gordon (Winnipeg), pedal steel sensation Mike Eckert (Toronto), and violinist Gwen Hoebig (concert mistress of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra)—and many others in the band.

 

 

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