BROOKLYN, NY -– OmniTone enters the second year of its Discovery Series with a scorching romp across the territory of the "big band" in jazz.  The Jim McNeely Tentet blazes through eight protracted pieces on Group Therapy, exponentially extending the vocabularies of arrangement, composition and performance for large groups.

Top-flight New York musicians from the Vanguard and Carnegie Hall orchestras and cutting edge movers and shakers from the "downtown" creative music scene blow mightily on five highly inventive originals, plus phenomenal reworkings of the classic "Body and Soul," Coltrane’s "Village Blues," Bud Powell's "The Fruit" and a stunning reharmonization of "Silent Night."

"To me, one of the most important questions a composer asks is 'What if?'" poses McNeely, and with that question in mind the Grammy-nominated arranger, composer and pianist proceeds to break, or rather redefine a lot of the "rules."  Such thinking results in the innovative and even groundbreaking devices contained on this debut recording.

Highlights include:

• The title opus, "Group Therapy," in which paired group members take off from the supercharged melody in tandem, in wickedly melodic conversational flights.

• "A Perfect Six," written with Woody Shaw in mind, and which the group fills with what the composer calls Shaw's "crackling energy."

• A fragmented, eye-opening reimagining of bebop piano legend Bud Powell's "The Fruit," utilizing McNeely's ingenious "subtractive process" – an organic version of "sampling" in which chord, melody and solo pivot around an arbitrary fragment of the original.

The distinguished group here assembled for a session of potent musical interchange includes: Tony Kadleck or Greg Gisbert, Scott Wendholt on trumpet; OmniTone recording artist Tom Varner on French horn; Ed Neumeister (who flew in from Austria specially for this recording) on trombone; Dick Oatts, Billy Drewes, Scott Robinson on reeds; Cameron Brown on bass; John Hollenbeck on drums; and, of course, Jim McNeely on piano.

"Like Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan re-defined the 'little big band' in 1949 with Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool band, Jim's doing it again for the new millennium," bubbles OmniTone founder and president Frank Tafuri.  "The Tentet's pared-down size allows for a more slippery slope between ensemble and solo playing, so, while big band aficionados will dig Group Therapy, so too will small group creative music lovers be bowled over by the depth and wealth of sound and inventiveness."

McNeely received his first critical acclaim as pianist with the groups of trumpeters Ted Curson and Chet Baker, and later with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra; he continues today as pianist and Composer-in-Residence for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.  He worked four years as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet and five years in the Phil Woods Quintet.  At the present time, he leads his own trio, and appears as soloist at concerts and festivals in places as varied as Finland, Australia, and Cleveland.

McNeely's reputation as an original composer/arranger for large jazz bands continues to grow.  His most recent work includes projects with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands), the West German Radio (WDR) Big Band and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, in addition to the Vanguard Orchestra.  The New York Times has called his writing "exhilarating."  Bob Brookmeyer has written about Jim: "Whatever the 'next step' is in music, I firmly believe he will be it.  He has all the tools — imagination, technique, dreams, ambition...."  And Down Beat, in reviewing McNeely's CD East Coast Blow Out (with the WDR Big Band on Lipstick Records), enthused: "Magnificent — 5 stars!"

McNeely has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art Farmer, Bobby Watson and Phil Woods.  He currently has ten albums under his own name.  His two previous records were the currently double Grammy-nominated Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra & Jim McNeely: Nice Work (DaCapo) and the Grammy-nominated Lickety Split: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Jim McNeely (New World).

Teaching is also an important element of McNeely’s work.  He has been part of the jazz faculty at New York University and has appeared at college jazz festivals as performer and clinician.  He has been involved regularly with workshops such as the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Clinics, and the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) and has done teaching residencies in the US, Canada, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Australia.  McNeely is also Co-Director of the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop.

Complete information on Group Therapy — including liner notes, Jim McNeely's biography and discography, and an extensive interview with the pianist/arranger/composer — is available at the OmniTone website at http://www.omnitone.com/grouptherapy/.  For printed or soft copy versions of any information or to arrange an interview with Jim McNeely, please contact Rob Thacher or Frank Tafuri at OmniTone.

OmniTone Inc, founded in 1999, is dedicated to releasing new recordings of "adventurous and listenable" jazz from today's foremost creative musicians.  Through the label and through its on-line store, OmniTone offers "All the tones, all the shapes, all the time..."  The current OmniTone catalog includes releases by Frank Kimbrough/Joe Locke, Ron Horton, Tom Varner, the Joe Morris Quartet, Equal Interest (Joseph Jarman, Leroy Jenkins and Myra Melford), Cuong Vu, Marty Ehrlich's Traveler's Tales, Oscar Noriega's Play Party, and Steve Slagle. 

OmniTone's Discovery series offers engaging new recordings of ingenious artists and groups, many debuting on the creative music scene.  The Discovery Series includes releases by Michael Bisio, Mike Lee, the M.O.B. Trio (Matt Wilson, Ohad Talmor and Bob Bowen), and Lynn Seaton.

OmniTone is available through fine retail outlets, in your town and online.  Information on US and international distribution is available at the OmniTone website at www.omnitone.com.