Standard Deviations – God Bless the Child / What a Wonderful World

“Standard Deviations” is a 2-volume collection of the greatest Jazz Standards of all time… reimagined. Tunes deviate into one another, styles deviate into related genres and arrangements deviate from the standard originals. Contemporary jazz musicians bind together blues, funk, fusion, progressive rock, new age, post-bop and smooth jazz, depending on the arrangement. 33 classics arranged into 24 tracks over 2 CDs.

Departing from Billie Holiday’s original empathic performance, Mueller employs higher energy funk-fusion to give this old classic a contemporary feel. It captures the current chaos of youth sorting the confusion of being born into a world without proper moorings. This synthesis of funk, bop, and moral jazz, is illustrated by a diverse collage of Mother and Child artwork that is both comforting and melancholic, sometimes even disquieting. Like the music, the images explore many kinds of blessings. The hip funkiness of “God Bless the Child” gives way, half way through, to a modal new age piano solo of “What A Wonderful World” – fitting for the opening track of this genre-blending/song-melding collection “Standard Deviations”. Thew solo becomes an oasis of nurturing gentleness and love. When the funk groove returns, it seems to have less melodic yet more adventurousness. I think the arranger is telling us something. The video also has some sweet photos of Billie Holiday at the beginning and Louis Armstrong toward the end (with composer Bob Thiele in one). “God Bless the Child” was composed by Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog, Jr. “What a Wonderful World” was composed by Bob Thiele & George David Weiss.

Musicians: Woody Mankowski on soprano sax; Tobin Mueller on all other instruments.

Tobin Mueller Links
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