Peggy Lee - Giving Way [CD]

This is the sixth studio album of The Peggy Lee Band, the first since 2012. The band was formed in Vancouver in 1998 to, as Peggy writes, "explore different strategies for improvisation within composition and to feature the unique and brilliant individual voices that make up the band. Over the years the individual voices remain vivid and compelling but the overall ensemble sound has also developed into it's own rich entity." The members of the band are Brad Turner (trumpet), Jon Bentley (sax), Jeremy Berkman (trombone), Ron Samworth and Tony Wilson (guitars), André Lachance (bass) and Dylan van der Schyff (drums), with Peggy on cello. All are senior members of Vancouver's jazz and creative music community; many have had their own Songlines releases, most recently Waxwing (Bentley-Lee-Wilson) with Flicker Down (2021). Lee's previous release on Songlines, the 10-piece Echo Painting project (2018) was widely acclaimed for it's heartfelt expressivity and superb style and craft. The compositions here are all originals except for The Band's "Whispering Pines." The music has a kind of concept, as Peggy explains: "These compositions come from a place of gratitude and love for family, place and community as well as a desire to do better collectively towards justice, honour and human dignity. The ensemble playing is beautifully polished and warm and the members of the band improvise with great creativity, passion and clarity." Acclaimed cellist's 8-piece band of outstanding Vancouver jazz improvisers (founded in 1998) put heart and soul into her beautiful compositions.