Album guide
Killing Aida
- Composers
- Ravel; Tchaikovsky; Handel; Mozart; Verdi; Stravinsky
- Released
- 2010
- Label
- ATS Records
- Forces
- Big band, Vibraphone, Violin
- Personnel
- Vienna Symphony Jazz Project, led by Flip Philipp on vibraphone and arrangements, featuring trumpeter Heinrich Bruckner and violinist Nicolas Geremus
Flip Philipp, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s principal percussionist, wrote the title piece while playing Aida nightly at Bregenz.
The eleven-piece band took Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite as its model: Ravel becomes a boogaloo, Mozart a gospel waltz and Handel a bossa nova.
Hear both
The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.
The closing “Russian Bird Medley” draws on The Firebird as a whole, so the classical player uses one complete performance of the ballet rather than a single movement.
Spotify’s player is here for convenience; the full track listing below remains available to everyone.
Source works
The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.
- Bolero BoogalooRavel: Boléro, M. 81
- Romeo Swings JuliaTchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture, TH 42
- Messiah Bossa NovaHandel: Messiah, HWV 56, Part I, No. 6: Aria, ‘But who may abide the day of His coming’
- Gospel on Tuba MirumMozart: Requiem in D minor, K. 626: III. Sequenz b. Tuba mirum
- Killing AidaVerdi: Aida, Act II
- Russian Bird MedleyStravinsky: The Firebird, complete ballet (1910)