Part Superfly, part Cotton Club. Part James Brown, part Count Basie. All rhythm, all groove. Meet BT ALC Big Band (https://btalc.com), the 19-piece outfit on a quest to put a fresh spin on the art of big band jazz orchestras by adding funk to the horn-powered sound. The high-energy collective that also makes music education part of their mission drops “The Search For Peace” this Friday. The album release will be celebrated Friday evening with two sold-out concerts at City Winery in Boston.
Brian Thomas and Alex Lee-Clark lead BT ALC Big Band, flexing the muscle of five saxophonists, four trumpeters and four trombonists in its high-octane arsenal. Thomas and Lee-Clark wrote the music on “The Search For Peace,” which incorporates some African funk and reggae/ska in the mix of what the duo call “big band funk.” Soulive’s Alan Evans produced the collection, taking an old-school, 1960s-70s approach with the objective of showcasing the band’s combustible raw energy. The retro sound was created by putting the entire band in the same recording studio and letting them loose on the seven tunes, using one omnidirectional microphone to record the tracks live.
For Thomas and Lee-Clark, their goals for BT ALC Big Band are two-part: revive and expand the possibilities for big bands, making them relevant again and move the art form forward through music education. In addition to making their charts available for study, the two musicians are busy clinicians throughout New England, teaching, conducting workshops and performing with students.
After Friday’s album release concert, BT ALC Big Band will begin a monthly residency on May 20 at Sally O’Brien’s near Boston with shows booked through September. Their roots in the area are deep with Thomas and Lee-Clark having met while studying music at UMass Amherst. Their band dropped its debut album, “Superhero Dance Party,” in 2013 followed by the two-volume “The Herd Sessions” three years ago. The new record takes its name for “everyone's personal struggle to find peace in their own lives and with each other, specifically in this moment in history. There's so much instability as ‘the future’ is being formed around us in real time, and it can feel like you don't have a say in any of it - politically, economically, environmentally or any other aspect of the human experience. ‘The Search For Peace’ is really about the struggle to find your own corner of stability in an unstable world.”
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