Jazzers Dig Into Disney Repertoire On New CD Series

 

Walt Disney Records will release Disney Jazz Volume 1: Everybody Wants To Be A Cat on Jan. 25. The CD’s 13 tracks include Disney classics as well as more contemporary Disney hits, executed in a range of styles from straightahead to experimental.

 

Recorded last year, Everybody Wants To Be A Cat features performances by numerous jazz artists who are active today, including Dave Brubeck, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, Roberta Gambarini, the Bad Plus, Mark Rapp, Nikki Yanofsky, Esperanza Spalding, Regina Carter, Gilad Hekselman, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Alfredo Rodriguez.
 
Historically, Disney tunes have proved to be inspiring fodder for jazz musicians. In the decade following Disney’s first forays into creating new music (1929–’39), songs from the studio’s Silly Symphony series and full-length films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio made it onto the Hit Parade, interpreted by such bandleaders as Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Bunny Berigan. By the end of the ’60s, jazz artists of all stripes had embraced Disney show tunes, prime examples being Brubeck’s album Dave Digs Disney, Louis Armstrong’s Disney Songs The Satchmo Way and Miles Davis’ and John Coltrane’s takes on “Someday My Prince Will Come” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”
 
From: http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=news&subsect=news_detail&nid=1625