The new jazz project involving Ted Nash was commissioned by Wynton Marsalis in his role as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

Around two years ago Marsalis asked Nash to compose a long-form piece that would eventually be performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

He was given the freedom to what he wanted but it had to have an overall theme.

Nash came up with the idea of Portrait in Seven Shades, an hour of new music in which each movement of the overall composition would be dedicated to a different painter.

Part of the challenge was choosing the painters who would effectively function as his muse.

In the end Nash decided to choose seven who lived within the 100 years or so that jazz has existed.

The painters who ended up inspiring the seven movements were: Claude Monet, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall, and Jackson Pollock.

The recording also features special guest musicians Nathalie Bonin (violin), Wycliffe Gordon (tuba), and Bill Schimmel (accordion).

Each of the movements also took inspiration from specific canvases from each artist’s work, and here Nash explains “Van Gogh”:

A jazz-composer and saxophonist who shares a name with his swing-saxophonist uncle, Nash is also known for his work with the Jazz Composers Collective and other albums, which include Conception, Rhyme and Reason, Still Evolved and In The Loop.

For more information visit his official website at www.tednash.com

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