Variants for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra  (1960)
Edwin Schuller, bass
George Schuller, drums
Tom Beckham, vibes
Tim Ray, piano

Journey into Jazz (1962)
Gunther Schuller, narrator
Edwin Schuller, bass
George Schuller, drums
David Ballou, trumpet
Jason Hunter, tenor saxophone
Matt Dariau, alto saxophone

Concertino for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra (1959)
Edwin Schuller, bass
George Schuller, drums
Tom Beckham, vibes
Bruce Barth, piano

Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Gil Rose

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Downbeat Magazine
National Public Radio
American Record Guide

The three works recorded herewith belong to a genre of music known as "Third Stream," a style, a concept, conceived in the late 1950's which sought to bring together the two mainstream musics of the time: jazz and classical. It was a time when these two quite different musical languages were still living in totally different worlds. Very active for already more than a decade as a composer, performer, and writer/critic in both stylistic arenas, I began to suggest that there really were more commonalities between the two musical idioms than dissimilarities, and that it was high-time that a rapproachment between the two musical-linguistic concepts be initiated. Not ony had enough time passed to bring about a great understanding and respect for each other's music on both sides of the stylistic fence, but that it was also now high-time to bring improvisation, the heart and soul of jazz, into the creative equation.

All three works presented here are written for variously sized symphony orchestras and soloistically functioning jazz groups. In the case of Concertino and Variants it is a jazz quartet (originally the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet) and for Journey into Jazz a quintet consisting of trumpet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass, and drums.

- Gunther Schuller