The Gennett Suite – Premium Dolby Atmos Mix Set for September 1

Patois Records and the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra together announce the release of a premium Dolby Atmos immersive mix version of the critically acclaimed The Gennett Suite on September 1, 2023 through Apple Music. This will be followed by a double LP vinyl version of the recording later this fall. Celebrating the full circle of recording technology from the inception of the legendary Gennett Records in the early 1900s to the present, both versions of the recording will be available along with artwork chronicling the history of how early jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Bix Beiderbecke created their music on the Gennett label. 
 
“The immersive mixes will make you feel like the orchestra is playing a private concert just for you as you sit amongst the ensemble hearing the 13 horns clearly and separately surrounding you in 360 degrees. It allows you to experience the complex and detailed harmonies and the beautiful tones of each of the musicians. Many immersive mixes utilize the format for tricks and gimmicks, but Jazz is a natural fit for this relatively new way to experience music.” – Mixing Engineer Jacob Belser 
 
“The Gennett Suite is a reaffirmation of jazz and how its living spirit continues to inspire us.” – Wayne Wallace, Patois Records
 
The Gennett Suite will be available to stream in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music with compatible equipment. See https://www.dolby.com/experience/music/#gref for details on how to listen.

The album, featuring the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra and released on CD/digital June 9, 2023 via Patois Records, has earned broad critical acclaim:

★★★★★  “A brilliant tribute to a founding studio of 1920s jazz… What stands out immediately on first listen, is the sophistication and arrangements of the classic tunes of this period. I would compare the quality to early Duke Ellington… Much like Duke, Brent writes to the strengths of his soloists. Recorded in August, 2022, in Bloomington, Indiana, in pristine acoustics, this is early jazz music to treasure.” —Jeff Krow, Audiophile Audition

★★★★1/2 “This ambitious piece is named for Gennett Records, who played a crucial role in jazz history 100 years ago. With the highest production values in every stage, this one is a must for devotees of contemporary big band jazz. — Duck Baker, Absolute Sound 

★★★★★ “…the music has the feel of America, the twenty-first century reaching back and shaking hands with the early-twentieth, taking the artists’ relatively primitive recordings—state of the art for their times—and inviting them into the present, with gorgeous harmonies and luxuriant arrangements. The Gennett Suite: a distinctly American masterpiece.” – Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

★★★★ “The Gennett Suite by the Buselli/Wallarab Orchestra, in which Brent Wallarab reimagines century-old themes like “Tin Roof Blues”, “Riverboat Shuffle”, “Davenport Blues” and six others into a contemporary suite. Like Gil Evans and Henry Threadgill before him, he intends neither an earnest repertory-style duplicate nor a cartoonish, cut-and-paste mockery of 1920s pop culture. Using a stylish modernism, he dresses them in a 21st-century context so we can hear them played with care for fresh ears in today’s terms. For those who’ve let their homework slide on the early jazz songbook, there’s a richly appointed 68-page booklet to provide a scrim of antiquity. — John McDonough, DownBeat 

★★★★ “Mark Buselli and Brent Wallarab have taken this important music and refashioned it for their sumptuous big band….Vivid arrangements and stunning soloists swingingly submerge the listener in the seismic 1920s, making them seem as fresh as the 2020s — fresher, perhaps…. Let this lovely album clean out your 21st- century ears, then blow the dust off the originals and play them too.” – Chris Pearson, The Times, London