Jeffrey Brooks: The Passion

Big expressive gestures, heavy basslines, pop and rock influences, jagged dissonance and New York-style "downtown" noise are all signatures of composer Jeffrey Brooks' vibrant and electric music. As a longtime friend and associate of Bang on a Can's founding composers (Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe), whom he first met while a student at Yale in the mid-1980s, Jeffrey Brooks might be best known for his wind ensemble work Dreadnought (1996), but more significantly, he is one of the few modern classical composers with a penchant for chasing rhythm in a way that even urban dancefloor DJs can understand. The Passion collects three of his most compelling works: After the Treewatcher (2012), Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother (2015) and the epic title piece (2017). Featuring edgy, raucous performances by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the New York-based large ensemble Contemporaneous (conducted by David Bloom), the recording is, in essence, a tribute to the lasting power of friendship, and a triumph of the human spirit.