# Marc Copland – Better By Far 2017: Free download & Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/10/20/marc-copland-better-by-far-2017-free-download-video/
- Published: 2017-10-20T22:51:39+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Marc Copland got his start in jazz in New York City as a sometimes plugged-in 
alto saxophonist, working with drummer Chico Hamilton’s Quartet, and releasing an
overlooked album, Friends (Oblivion Records, 1973) featuring his own quartet. **

Then he went away, and came back as a pianist, and has since shaped himself into
one of finest jazz piano guys around, an artist with a supple touch, a feel for 
intricately gorgeous melodies and a deep immersion into complex harmonies. In 2015,
after a fruitful career that shifted from one record label to another, Copland started
his own Inner Voice Records, and offered up the maiden release, Zenith (2015), a
quartet affair with Ralph Alessi on trumpet, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer
Joey Baron rounding out the rhythm section. The year 2017 finds Copland offering
up his second release on the label, Better By Far, a reconvening the Zenith quartet.
The music consists of three group improvisations, five Copland compositions, and
a Thelonious Monk tune, “Evidence.” Two of Copland’s most significant teamings over
the years have been with guitarist John Abercrombie, and now with trumpeter Alessi.
Where Copland’s brush paints sound with a developed delicacy of touch, shimmering
chords, and gorgeous, amorphous shapings, Alessi uses brighter colors and sharper
edges. Especially edgy are the group improvisations, like “Mr. DJ,” that opens with
Baron’s soft drum whispers, joined by Alessi’s stabs of metallic notes, Copland’s
percussive ruminations. “Twister” is a more fluid, more introspective, darker-toned
piece that builds momentum along the way. Speaking of dark tones, the Copland-penned“
Gone Now,” has a pensive, melancholy mood similar to that of Gershwin’s “Gone, Gone,
Gone,” from the masterpiece, Porgy And Bess (1938). “Room Enough For Stars” floats.
It’s a beautiful ballad like only Copland can write, featuring Alessi in a patient
laying down of the melody, and a piquant bass turn by Gress; while Thelonious Monk’s“
Evidence” finds the group in a more playful mood an energetic romp that stretches
the Monkian angularity with an appealing malleability. With Better By Far Marc Copland
and Company continue to create the highest level of jazz. ~ Dan McClenaghan

**Personnel: Marc Copland: piano; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Drew Gress: bass; Joey 
Barron: drums.**

 1.  Day and Night
 2.  Better by Far
 3.  Mr DJ
 4.  Gone Now
 5.  Twister
 6.  Room Enough for Stars
 7.  Evidence
 8.  Dark Passage
 9.  Who Said Swing

[Free download](https://dfiles.ru/files/0nbczfflp)

![MarcCopeland_BetterbyFar](https://i0.wp.com/cdn2.jazztimes.com/2017/10/MarcCopeland_BetterbyFar-
550x496.jpg?resize=550%2C496&ssl=1)

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