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Vince Mendoza
8 Time Grammy award winning composer-arranger Vince Mendoza has been at the forefront of the jazz and contemporary music scene as a composer, conductor and recording artist for the last 30 years. He has written scores of compositions and arrangements for big band, chamber and symphonic settings while his jazz composing credits read like a “who's who” of the best modern instrumentalists and singers in the world today.
Mendoza's arranging has appeared on many critically acclaimed projects that include dozens of albums with song writing legends and vocalists such as Björk, Gregory Porter, Chaka Khan, Elvis Costello, Alejandro Sanz, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, Sting and Joni Mitchell. He has 8 Grammy awards and 38 nominations.
Mendoza’s 2021 recording “Freedom Over Everything” (BMG Modern Recordings) features Master Emcee Black Thought and soprano Julia Bullock while weaving his individual approach to jazz rhythms and instrumental colors through a grand symphonic tapestry. His new 2023 recording “Olympians” offers fresh, masterful readings of his compositions for the Metropole Orkest, featuring the orchestra with Dianne Reeves and Cécile McLorin Salvant. "Olympians" has been Grammy nominated for "Best Large Ensemble".
Mendoza is the composer in residence with the West Deutsche Rundfunk in Koln and the Conductor Laureate of the Netherlands Metropole Orkest, of which he was Chief Conductor for 9 seasons. In addition, he appeared as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonic, as well as other orchestras throughout Europe, the U.S., Japan, Scandinavia, and the U.K. He is the Artist in Residence with the Bohüslan Big Band in Gothenberg Sweden, and Professor of Jazz Composition at the Thorton School of Music/USC in Los Angeles.
Mendoza has also written commissioned compositions and arrangements for the Turtle Island String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Berlin Philharmonic, Metropole Orkest, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC. He has performed at the Monterey, Montreux, Berlin and North Sea Jazz Festivals.
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Vince Mendoza/Metropole Orkest: Olympians
by Jack Bowers
Eight-time Grammy-winning composer/arranger Vince Mendoza, born and raised in Norwalk, CT, has enjoyed great success overseas--in Europe, to be more precise--since releasing an album with Germany's WDR Big Band in 1994. The following year, Mendoza began collaborating with the Dutch Metropole Orkest and in 1998 was named its principal guest conductor. Olympians is Mendoza's third recording with the massive, string-laden Metropole. He has recorded other albums with the London and Czech Symphony Orchestras. Here in the U.S., ...
read moreVince Mendoza Metropole Orkest: Olympians
by Richard J Salvucci
Many years ago Dizzy Gillespie recorded an album called The New Continent (Limelight, 1965). Whether it was commercially successful is hard to say, but it featured an all-star cast of Los Angeles session players. The recording made a deep impression on some listeners because it was creative, dynamic, exotic and simply enjoyable. Good compositions (by Lalo Schifrin), arrangements and musicians will do that, even if the result is a bit different than mainstream jazz. Or mainstream Gillespie. ...
read moreVince Mendoza: Freedom Over Everything
by Jack Bowers
Freedom Over Everything is a rather tall order, one that New York-born composer & arranger Vince Mendoza has chosen to describe in musical terms—with help from the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and a number of guest artists including, on one track, the acclaimed American tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman— via a picturesque seven-movement “Concerto for Orchestra." Two brief observations: first, this is charming and tasteful music, unerringly performed by the CNSO; second, it is almost entirely symphonic, more ...
read moreVince Mendoza - Czech National Symphony Orchestra: Freedom Over Everything
by Angelo Leonardi
L'integrazione tra scrittura per orchestra sinfonica e jazz si arricchisce di un originale contributo di Vince Mendoza, che dirige la Czech National Symphony Orchestra in nuove partiture. Il fulcro dell'album è la suite in sei movimenti “Concerto For Orchestra," in cui si integra il tema “Freedom For Everything." Seguono due lunghe composizioni: “To The Edge Of Longing" e “New York Stories." Commissionato dalla citata CNSO, si avvale del contributo di Antonio Sanchez, Joshua Redman, del rapper Black Thought e della ...
read moreVince Mendoza: Streams of Influence Flowing into a River of Sound
by Victor L. Schermer
Vince Mendoza is a jazz composer, arranger, and conductor of consummate originality, skill, and adaptability, so much so that he has for several decades received frequent invitations and commissions from the whole gamut of ensembles and performers like the WDR Big Band, the Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands, the Los Angeles and Berlin Philharmonic, and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. He has written and arranged for jazz icons like the late great saxophonist Michael Brecker and pianist Fred Hersch, and ...
read moreLuciana Souza: Storytellers
by Angelo Leonardi
Ci sono dischi che raggiungono un equilibrio così prezioso tra gli ambiti strumentali e vocali (in un clima di lirismo, ricchezza interpretativa e freschezza) che regalano nuove emozioni a ogni ascolto e non vorresti staccartene. È quanto accade all'album appena pubblicato da Luciana Souza, inciso con la WDR Big Band diretta da Vince Mendoza. Altro aspetto avvincente è la variopinta scelta del repertorio. Otto brani vengono dal songbook di grandi autori brasiliani: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ivan Lins, ...
read moreWDR 3 Jazzfest 2018
by Henning Bolte
Theater Gütersloh / Bunker Ulmenwall BielefeldGütersloh / Bielefeld February 1-3, 2018 WDR stands for Westdeutscher Rundfunk, which is the public radio organization of the German federal state of North Rhine Westphalia based in Cologne, the jazz capital of the federal state. WDR 3 refers to the third program-line nowadays also indicated as Kulturradio (cultural broadcasting). Essence I experienced a remarkable coherency of a surprisingly rich and vivid regional radio landscape and a sympathizing audience ...
read moreVince Mendoza: Renaissance
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of the finest orchestral jazz albums I've heard this year is Vince Mendoza's Constant Renaissance (BCM&D). Recorded with a roughly 100-musician Temple University Studio Orchestra, the album is a Montana-sized canvas. Composer-arranger and conductor Mendoza is a six-time Grammy winner and has written arrangements for leading pop artists, including Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello. On Constant Renaissance, the full orchestra is joined by two major soloists—Terell Stafford on trumpet and Dick Oatts on alto saxophone. The music and the ...
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Vince Mendoza - Nights on Earth (2011)
Source:
Something Else!
It's been some time since we've heard Vince Mendoza working in such a personal context. Oh, we've heard plenty from Mendoza over the last decade, as he's handled arranging for the likes of Bjork, Sting and Joni Mitchell. In fact, Mendoza earned two of his six career Grammys for Mitchell's 2003 Travelogue and 2000 Both Sides Now projects. But Mendoza, who has presided over the Metropole Orkest for the past six years, hasn't released an album of his own compositions ...
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Composer/Arranger/Conductor/Bandleader Vince Mendoza Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
If Vince Mendoza were only known as a composer, he'd still be worth interviewing; his songs have been covered by Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Kurt Elling, Charlie Haden and John Abercrombie. He'd be fascinating to talk to if he were only known as a recording bandleader--his early records Start Here (Blue Note, 1990) and Instructions Inside (Blue Note, 1991), his big band CD Sketches (ACT, 1994) and his orchestral recording Epiphany (Zebra, 1999) are all jazz classics that stand up ...
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“Mendoza daringly expands the vernacular…to position him as the clear and natural successor to the late Gil Evans.” (All About Jazz) “… lyrical, sophisticated and witty.” (Entertainment Weekly) “Vince Mendoza is a “musician’s musician”… managing to interpret the best of his predecessors’ styles, adding undeniable twists and proprietary genius …” (Jazziz) …”breathtakingly beautiful music of the first order” (Amazon.com) “Vince’s strikingly original compositions are heralded by musicians and critics alike as innovative,hip and seductively lyrical.” (Downbeat) “Writer arranger Vince Mendoza is a master of contemporary idioms…” (Jazz Times) “… one of the most promising young jazz figures sans instrument.” (Downbeat) “His music is subtle, complex and full of harmonic mysteries.” (Tom Schnabel, KCRW)
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Vince Mendoza
Location: Los Angeles
Instrument: Composer / conductor
Born: November 17, 1961
Publicist: DL Media
