Stephane Furic Leibovici

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is an ensemble work by bassist and composer Stéphane Furic Leibovici, credited here as Stéphane Furic, recorded at Systems Two in Brooklyn in April 1995 and released by Soul Note in 1996. The title is that of a Walt Whitman poem. Five more track titles also come from Whitman, from Song of the Rolling Earth and Song of the Redwood Tree to Song of the Open Road and Song of the Universal, around a central Suite of Dances in seven parts.

The band is Chris Cheek on tenor and soprano saxophones, Andrew D'Angelo on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Jens Winther on trumpet and flugelhorn, Per Arne Glorvigen on bandoneon and Jim Black on drums, with Patrick Goraguer on Fender Rhodes and clavinet and Gaby Arnon on voice. Furic composed, arranged and produced, with Larry Phillabaum as co-producer. Discogs also credits Aaron Copland as a composer. Joe Marciano engineered, Ted Jensen mastered at Sterling Sound, the cover uses a painting by Jasper Johns, and the liner notes take the form of an interview by Francisco Gómez Acevedo. The longest tracks are Song of the Universal at eleven minutes and Song of the Open Road at nearly ten. The suite is more uneven in scale, from the eleven seconds of Symphonies to the almost eight minutes of City of Glass, with Sha'rani Black and XD (Suburban Chant) among its longer parts. Bandoneon and Rhodes beside a three-horn front line give the ensemble an unusual colour.

This is the Soul Note CD 121275-2, first released in 1996.