Per Thornberg accelerates the familiar, languid movement of George Gershwin’s classic, forcing “Summertime” to operate through sheer kinetic drive. This swinging arrangement discards atmospheric stagnation in favor of quick ensemble interplay. Lyrical phrasing from the tenor saxophone cuts across the pulse, treating the melody not as a static artifact but as an open track for direct interaction.
A direct collision occurs between the historical memory of the piece and the physical demands of swing. Pushing against the steady pulse of the rhythm section, the saxophone balances linear melodies against sudden shifts in velocity. The performance demands constant alertness from the players, forcing the historical distance between the composition’s origins and the current rendition to manifest as an active dialogue. Every phrase acts as a negotiation between individual statement and collective response, preventing the performance from settling into a passive replication.
Origins of this updated approach lie in a fusion arrangement written for the group Back to Butter in the late 1980s. Four decades of distance alter those initial structural lines, swapping out earlier fusion methodologies for a direct jazz vocabulary. Bringing this long history into the present, the final collective push refuses to linger, dropping the listener at the exact moment the tempo decides to.
