In 1968 the composer and trumpeter Michael Mantler recorded The Jazz Composer's Orchestra. On this large-ensemble album, written orchestral music framed free improvisers such as Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders and Roswell Rudd. First issued on the JCOA label and later distributed by ECM, it became a landmark of composed free jazz. The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update is Mantler's return to that music almost fifty years on, rewritten for a new orchestra and new soloists.
The idea came while Mantler was digitizing his catalogue and went back to the early scores. He kept the basic instrumentation but reduced the number of bassists, and added electric guitar and an amplified string quartet. The Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, made up of young European players, performs under Christoph Cech. The soloists include the radio.string.quartet.vienna, guitarist Bjarne Roupé, alto saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig and Mantler himself on trumpet. It was recorded live at Porgy & Bess in Vienna over three nights, 30 August to 1 September 2013, and mixed at Studios La Buissonne in France. Mantler produced it.
The ten pieces are numbered updates of works written between 1963 and 1969, counterparts of the Communications pieces on the original album. Mantler shifts the weight toward the notated parts, so the improvisations are shorter and more contained than in 1968. Dense chords for reeds, brass and French horns carry most of the music, broken by sudden outbursts from smaller groups. Update Eleven condenses the two-part piano concerto once written for Cecil Taylor into a feature for Roupé's guitar. The closing three-part Update Twelve gathers guitar, drums, trumpet and strings into its most open playing.
In London Jazz News in 2015, Mark McKergow called the album "not a reproduction or look back, but a new take on this music". Stephen Graham of Marlbank heard music "as much Bartók or Messiaen-influenced as Cecil Taylor or Mingus". In DownBeat, John Corbett wrote that the update is "equally serious and pretty fantastic on its own", while still calling the 1968 double album a masterpiece.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2391, released in November 2014, with a conversation between Mantler and Steve Lake in the booklet.
