ZHENGTAO PAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA

SCENERY IN MY STORY

Outside In Music

As a citizen of the world, moving from Shanghai to Boston, Massachusetts left an indelible impression on composer and orchestra conductor, Zhengtao Pan.  He has placed all his feelings about that relocation from China to the USA into this project.

Pan is already quite famous for his scores that play as background music for many popular computer games. It was his curiosity that attracted him to big band jazz. He was intrigued by the freedom of jazz music. It offered him a new avenue for his creativity. That’s how his album “Scenery in my Story” developed as an amazing, orchestrated project.

“The central theme of this album is my story, but it encompasses more than just myself.  It’s about the people I’ve met, the music I love, the things I’ve observed, the places I’ve visited and the stories I’ve heard. …My goal was to create music that communicates emotionally without requiring listeners to understand complex compositional techniques,” Zhengtao Pan explains.

There is a peacefulness in Pan’s musical arrangements, opening with “Windy Days.” This composition features the dancing flute of Itai Kriss with warm horn harmonics that introduce us to this arrangement in a tender way. The power drums of Federico Gucciardo push the arrangement forward with gusto. Pan says the coastal breeze in Boston reminds him of Shanghai. It is also a breezy, coastal city.  “Hometown” has the horns fluttering like circling birds at the introduction.  This tune is influenced by traditional Chinese folk tunes and children’s songs. The trumpet of Nick Frenay soaks up the spotlight in a sweet way.  “City Machine” picks up the pace, pushed ahead by percussive excellence. This song is Pan’s first impression of NYC, humming like a machine.

He has written a composition to tribute a dancer he met with a serious leg injury, who would not give up their dream. This composition is called “Dancing in the Dream” and features a wonderful jazz solo by the saxophone of Walter Smith III. Isamu McGregor also offers a lovely piano solo.

I found each composition written and arranged by the gifted Zhengtao Pan to be both beautiful, creative and soothing.  He covers a few jazz standards.  One is “It Could Happen to You” that reminded him, during the COVID epidemic, that if he didn’t wear his mask, it could happen to him. I love the orchestration on this tune. Most of this music was composed during that locked-down serious and deadly pandemic that killed over a million Americans. But instead of stress and fear, I hear beauty and brilliance in the work of Zhengtao Pan and his dynamic orchestra.

The orchestra members are:

Zhengtao Pan, piano/bass/composer/conductor/arranger/producer/recording engineer; Noah Justice, bass; Isamu McGregor, piano; Chen Wang, Men Di, guitar; Itai Kriss & Pierpaolo Pecoriello, flutes; Andrew Gould, alto saxophone/flute; Walter Smith III, tenor saxophone; Manuel Trabucco, saxophones, clarinet; Mattia Feliciani, bass clarinet; Jesse McGinty, saxophones/trombone/flute/clarinet/bass clarinet; Andrea Guerrini, Mike Cordone & Nick Frenay, trumpets; Massimo Morganti, Bob Pilkington & Andrew Alcocer, trombones.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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