Update: composer/Bandleader Christopher Zuar Earns 2025 Grammy® Nomination in the category of Best Instrumental Composition
An album that has been sitting awaiting a proper review is Exuberance from composer and bandleader Christopher Zuar: having now listened, I am regretting the weeks without this music in my life.
This is more than a big band album, with a complexity and intricacy to the writing and playing that can only be described as sumptuous.
Apparently a record of Zuar's person evolution through his relationship with his wife and collaborator, Anne Beal, Exuberance is bursting with life, just as Beal's artwork seems to exude vitality.
Conducted by Mike Holober, the ensemble features a superb collection of first-call musicians that includes Pete McCann (guitar), Glenn Zaleski (piano), Drew Gress (bass), Mark Ferber (drums), Rogerio Boccato (percussion) and a horn section that includes Charles Pillow, Jason Rigby, Ben Kono, Dave Pietro, Tony Kadleck, and Alan Ferber. Special guests Sara Caswell (violin), Emma Frank (vocals), Joe Brent (mandolin), Max ZT (hammered dulcimer) and second percussionist Keita Ogawa add more colour and texture.
Zuar himself describes these seven compositions as less the portrait of a couple than an impressionistic map of his own personal and emotional evolution over their half-decade together: “This album is a journey of personal growth. For me, this has been very much a process of becoming more open and learning how to let another person into my life. Each piece is an in-depth exploration of my emotional landscape at the time it was written.
“This is not a fairy tale version of what our relationship has been and continues to be. It contains all the joy and sorrow, isolation and connection that are part of it. I needed to go through the entire journey to fully understand and arrive at the point of exuberance.”
Zuar himself describes these seven compositions as less the portrait of a couple than an impressionistic map of his own personal and emotional evolution over their half-decade together: “This album is a journey of personal growth. For me, this has been very much a process of becoming more open and learning how to let another person into my life. Each piece is an in-depth exploration of my emotional landscape at the time it was written.
“This is not a fairy tale version of what our relationship has been and continues to be. It contains all the joy and sorrow, isolation and connection that are part of it. I needed to go through the entire journey to fully understand and arrive at the point of exuberance.”
Fittingly, Exuberance is the final track on this album of intricate wanderings through a burgeoning relationship that exists in both personal and professional worlds - Zuar and Beal have collaborated on several creative projects since meeting in 2017. For me, though, the track with the most to offer is Moments In Between, which seems to evoke the early days of the relationship when they returned from their meeting to lives established in different parts of the United States. The music speaks of questions and amazing trumpet writing and playing, with writing for big band that is decisive beneath.
Don't let Exuberance remain out of your life - there's lots to enjoy on this journey of evolution.
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