Orrin Evans & the Captain Black Big Band – The Intangible Between CD

8-pane Digipak Album

“Captain Black has always traveled to wonderful places on the shoulders of a community of insight and input. This record is no exception. The band walks on the edge of traditional and free jazz, dipping into the waters of brilliant form and exuberant liberty. THE INTANGIBLE BETWEEN is most certainly a transcendent listen.”
— Paul Rauch, All About Jazz

“This is an inspired big band – this one plays with modern sensibilities and a great sense of fun and spirit…This is anything but your father’s big band music. This stretches the boundaries to wonderful places. It’s a provocative mix of the traditional and free jazz and can be a transportive listen.”
— Jim Hynes, Glide Magazine

“This is one of those rather rare creatures, an album that is all highlights.”
— Barry Witherden, Jazz Journal

Grammy Award nomination: “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Jazz”

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Featuring both taut, keenly focused ensemble playing and raucous, spirited soloing, THE INTANGIBLE BETWEEN reflects the ever-growing chemistry Orrin Evans and the core ensemble of the Captain Black Big Band while celebrating bandleader’s’ open-door policy toward collaborators new and old. The rotating cast of players, while maintaining the more compact scale introduced on the band’s last album, the Grammy-nominated PRESENCE, also features first-time members alongside veterans that joined the ranks in its earliest days and special guests whose collaborations with Evans stretch back over many years.

From trumpeter Sean Jones, with whom Evans has played for well over a decade, and Eric Revis to bassist Dylan Reis, a young bass protégé, to bandmates making strides in the jazz scene after being nurtured by Evans early in their career in Philly and beyond – drummers Anwar Marshall and Mark Whitfield Jr., saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins, Troy Roberts and Caleb Wheeler Curtis, and bassist Luques Curtis, among others speak with a loud, unified and infectious voice throughout. It is a unity that has led the ensemble a Grammy nomination and elevated its status to one of the most thrilling and revered ensembles in modern jazz.

The title, according to Evans, refers to an elusive decision point, that sense of stepping off a ledge into the unknown that comes with taking risks and setting a new course.m“This record is just about going for it, taking those projects you’ve been dreaming about and just making them happen,” he says. “The industry constantly tells you to wait, but for how long? Why not just do it now?”

released May 1, 2020

Orrin Evans – piano

Immanuel Wilkins – soprano & alto saxophone
Todd Bashore – alto saxophone & flute
Caleb Wheeler Curtis – alto saxophone
Stacy Dillard – tenor & soprano saxophone
Troy Roberts – tenor saxophone

Sean Jones – trumpet
Josh Lawrence – trumpet
Thomas Marriott – trumpet

David Gibson – trombone
Stafford Hunter – trombone
Reggie Watkins – trombone & Fender Rhodes

Joseph Block – Fender Rhodes

Luques Curtis – bass
Madison Rast – bass
Dylan Reis – bass
Eric Revis – bass

Jason Brown – drums
Anwar Marshall – drums
Mark Whitfield Jr. – drums

The Village – vocals

Recorded Live on October 1, 2019
at Sear Sound Studio C, NYC

Produced by Paul Stache & Damon Smith
Recording, Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Chris Allen
Studio Assistant: Justin Berger
Photography by Jimmy and Dena Katz
Design by Damon Smith and Paul Stache

“Tough Love” includes words from
“Yo Bum Rushing the Door” by Son of Black
and “Love Poem” by John Holiday

“Love Poem” Voice Mixing & Editing by Matthew Evans.
The Village includes Brinae & Malaika, Barbara Bendl, Derek Walton,
Maya Holliday, Dominique & Jadyn, Donald Edwards, Jason & Desirae,
Fifield Boys, Johna & Muna, Lafiya Watson, Noah Baerman,
Matthew & Kathryn, Sonya Clark, Marianne Straus Sutin,
Karen & Ted, Vivian Rose, and Wayne & Vaughn.