More Info:

From his own Big Band albums, to his Grammy nominated First Symphony, or his hundreds of credits in film, TV, and writing for some of the world's biggest artists, composer/arranger Chris Walden has never shied away from monumental musical challenges. With "Missa Iubileum Aurem, " Walden was commissioned by trombonist & Napa Valley entrepreneur Ted Hall, in celebration of his 50th Anniversary, to find an original approach to melding jazz with the awe-inspiring tradition of the liturgical Mass. Recruiting "cantors" Kurt Elling & Tierney Sutton, along with the Los Angeles and Bay Area artists of the LMR Jazz Orchestra, and organist Simon Berry with St. Dominic's Schola Cantorum choir, Walden has created a soaring masterpiece. Ted Hall's 55-year dedication to connecting 2000 years of liturgical music with jazz began as trombonist with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Band at The Village Vanguard. Performing on the 1969 national PBS broadcast of The Requiem Mass for Robert Kennedy, led to a first uncompleted work in 1970, a Dmitri Matheny-penned "New Millennium Mass" - performed at San Francisco's St. Dominic's Catholic Church, midnight, December 31, 1999 - and ultimately, this "Missa Iubileum Aurem, " celebrating love and the promise of eternal spiritual life, as a singular, joyous Golden Jubilee experience.