"The Joshua Shneider Love Speaks Orchestra recording is chock full of strong, well crafted harmonies with beautiful melodies and lush sonorities throughout. A very engaging big band outing with a small group feeling! BRAVO!" - Rufus Reid, Jazz Bassist / Composer

“I involved Josh for many years in projects of mine, from "The Gospel at Colonus" to the score for "Bagdad Cafe." At that time I knew him only as a wonderful and innovative alto saxophonist. The first time I heard his orchestra playing his compositions and arrangements I was blown away by his harmonic sophistication and imagination, not to mention the pleasure I felt hearing the acoustic richness of his post-Gil Evans big band sound. Wow!” -Bob Telson, Pulitzer, Tony, Grammy and Academy Award nominated Composer

Joshua Shneider composer, arranger, conductor.
John O’Gallagher, Matthew Willis, Dan Pratt, Ian Rapien, Frank Basile woodwinds 
Matthew McDonald, Noah Bless, John Yao, Max Seigel trombones.
Jeff Wilfore, Alex Pope Norris, David Smith, Justin Mullens trumpets Justin Mullens french horn. 
Eric Halvorson drums, David Ambrosio bass, Bennett Paster keyboards, Joe Cardello percussion, Gary Sieger guitar “The Hurting Kind” 

Featured Guests: Lucy Woodward vocals, Dave Stryker guitar

The Love Speaks Orchestra

Music has always been the main attraction in Shneider's life. Born in Stamford, Connecticut, raised in the greater Boston area and residing in Brooklyn, New York since 1988, Shneider is the product of a childhood spent searching the radio dial, and rifling through his parent's records. These included sides by Al Hibbler, Cozy Cole, Count Basie, and a particular favorite, A Jazz Salute to Freedom, which featured Bird, Dizzy, Miles, Stan Getz, Ellington, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn and many others. Regarding AM radio, where he heard an incredible variety of music Shneider elaborated, "Just on 'Hit' radio you could hear Louis Armstrong, Sly Stone, Hugh Masekela, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Motown, John Coltrane, James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Cannonball Adderley, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery and more; just on one station in the space of a couple of hours - it seems crazy now. The music grabbed me and shaped me before I had a reason to think about it; before I even knew about style or influence."

"Big Whup" - Shneider wrote this composition after listening to the soundtrack of the film, “Black Orpheus”. He explains, "There is a wonderful tune by Jobim called 'Frevo' performed by a marching band, which was the inspiration. I tried to invoke the Samba School vibe and get my own thing in there as well. Dig the way John O’Gallagher dialogues with the band before he boldly sets out for parts unknown."

"Dark Energy" - Shneider envisioned for this tune a kind of stretched out, floating melody juxtaposed on top of a background that would feel like it was sinking. Seems like some Herbie Hancock and Al Jackson snuck in there somehow, as well.

"When Love Speaks" - This tune was inspired by the title. Shneider explains, "I had gone to hear the incredible Jeveeta Steele sing one night in NYC-I had worked with her and The J.D. Steele Singers doing “The Gospel at Colonus”. We were chatting after the show and Jeveeta's sister said something along the lines of, “that’s love talkin’ to ya”. A light went off in my head and that stuck with me. I wrote the tune and handed it off to Finian McKean who wove his own evocative narrative through it. In fact, I liked his lyric so much I named the band after it. I was hearing Lucy’s voice in my head as I wrote the melody.

"Blue To You" - "I think of this as a blues in sheep’s clothing, as it were. The high point for me is Dan Pratt’s intrepid tenor solo, he has an amazing sound, and it helps that he also plays all the right notes!"

"Lover's Leap" - "This is one of the only tunes I’ve written over the chord changes of a standard, namely 'Lover' (get it?) by Rogers and Hart. I wore out Sonny Rollins’ beyond-breakneck version of it, titled 'B Swift'. I set the melody in an Afro-Cuban groove as a feature for David Smith on trumpet and Frank Basile on baritone saxophone."

"Lost In The Stars" - The only non-original piece on the recording. David Berger, the bandleader and Ellington scholar, and a teacher of Shneider's, suggested he write a small group version of this tune when he was in school. This arrangement is an outgrowth of that 5-horn version. Alex Norris spins out a beautiful personal solo.

"Twinsville" - "This tune made itself known to me as a melody first. The counter lines I was hearing dictated the harmonic direction of the piece. That’s a real Wurlitzer that Bennett Paster is so ably playing. The title refers to the town I live in; if only in my mind."

"The Hurting Kind" - An unabashed homage to Shneider's favorite pop divas of the 1960s, particularly Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield, as well as great songwriters like Burt Bacharach and Hal David. "I wrote this after one of my frequent periods of listening to 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' about 20 times in a row."

"One Flight Down" - The title refers to pianist James Williams who lived in the apartment below Shneider and his family for many years and, in particular, "his laugh, which was formidable". "When James was home he spent a lot of time on the phone keeping in touch with his legions of friends, and every so often a laugh would erupt through the floorboards that would shake the house. When I put the piece together I was thinking of the groove that Elvin Jones plays on Gil Evans’ 'Time of the Barracudas'. I love the way John O’Gallagher builds his solo, from his wry comments at the beginning to the blazing fireworks at the end".

"Cute Little Nightmare" - "The origin of the title to this tune was an off-the-cuff quip my wife made a while back. Someone had remarked that one of our kids was 'so cute', to which she replied, 'yeah, a cute little nightmare. Must have been the sleep deprivation talking . . . Anyway, it sounded like a Blues in the making, to me. When I started putting together this recording I knew I had to include guitarist Dave Stryker. Dave was one of the first musicians I met and played with when I came to NYC, and I immediately knew he was a very special player. I’ve always been knocked-out by his wide ranging musical sensibilities (what other organ trio plays ‘Close to You’?), and the depth of his groove. I don’t know too many people that swing this tempo as hard as Dave.

"Friction" - "The genesis of this tune was an idea I had to write an ostinato bass figure and then vary the harmonic structure above it. I also wanted to keep the feeling of the tune a bit unsettled, so I wrote the melody in a different tonality from the bass line. The way Stryker develops his solo reminds me of a hang glider stepping off into the void and catching an updraft into the clouds. We also hear from Justin Mullens on trumpet, a wonderful soloist with a very individual sound and conception; he takes the road less traveled."

"Completing this project has been a milestone and an incredible experience for me. Although I have been a working musician for many years, this is the first recording I’ll have out under my own name. I feel that I’ve been able to draw on my various experiences as a sideman, writer and arranger, and fly on the wall to present a musical snapshot of where I’ve been and an inkling of where I hope to continue to go. For the future, I hope to expand on the areas that I feel are bearing fruit for me now and to explore new directions and concepts that are important to me as an artist", Joshua Shneider.