Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Portrait in Seven Shades

Here’s a fascinating orchestral suite composed by Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra member Ted Nash, offering seven impressionistic movements, each related to the work of a renowned modern painter who came to prominence during the first century of jazz. It’s an attractive concept, with a couple of potential pitfalls for those coming to the project unawares. First, this is probably more through-composed and thus less improvisational than many Jazz at Lincoln Center-affiliated programs. Second, the painters are famous enough to already evoke concrete expectations from listeners, who might be chagrined to discover Nash has a different musical interpretation of those iconic canvases.

For instance: despite Nash’s best intentions, “Pollock” is not as cacophonous and “abstract expressionist” as one might assume, and the inevitable cubist connection you expect him to draw in “Picasso” has to do with stacking the trombone chords in fourths (as in four sides to a cube) and having places where the music is based on the interval of the fourth, rather than the kind of angular “cubist” refractions you hear in Monk’s music. Again, preconceptions are the bugaboo here: Being open-minded will help bridge the gaps, as will a visit to Nash’s superb and informative liner notes (click here and then go to the place where it says “view the CD booklet”), which explain his process and cite specific paintings as primary inspirations.

Enough kvetching, because there is plenty to love about Portrait In Seven Shades, beginning with the bucolic, Ellingtonian horn voicings on “Monet;” the puckish, percussive “Dali,” a blues in surreal 13/8 time with the low-moan tags of trombonist Vincent Gardener; and the spare pizzazz of the three-person rhythm section erupting into joyful, vintage, big-band fanfares on “Matisse.” Those who associate Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis will gravitate to “Picasso” and “Van Gogh” (the latter surprisingly lush and temperate), both of which feature long, typically arresting solos by the trumpeter. For “Chagall,” Nash brings in members of his Odeon ensemble, accordionist Bill Schimmel and violinist Nathalie Bonin, who team with tuba player Wycliffe Gordon, for a chamber-like arrangement that mixes the sophisticated whimsy of a Parisian sidewalk soundtrack with the high (gorgeously yearning violin passages) and low (klezmer-like canters) culture of Russia. This Portrait is an intellectually provocative, utterly distinctive foray into the “Third Stream.”