Some projects have a tendency to get out of control. Take The Seasons by Ben Wendel, for example. The saxophonist, known from Kneebody, started this adventure in 2015 as a series of twelve original video clips, loosely inspired by Tchaikovsky’s twelve pieces for piano from 1876. Three years later, The Seasons had evolved into an album and Wendel has been touring jazz venues all over the globe with this project for some time now. In its original setup he performed each duet with another top musician, working with Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Luciana Souza, among others. Not all twelve legends of this video project are members of his current five-piece tour band, but Wendel was able to take on pianist Aaron Parks and guitarist Gilad Hekselman. The bandleader rearranged the original music for a quintet. The arrangements will be performed in this new form for the first time during the tour.
