The Moanin' Frogs: One Giant Leap
Big Round
Records
Don't be misled by The Moanin' Frogs' irreverent name: this saxophone sextet is serious about its music and seriously good at performing it. On their wide-ranging One Giant Leap, Edward Goodman (soprano), Gabriel Piqué (alto), Jeff Siegfried (tenor), Jonathan Hulting-Cohen (tenor, sopranino), Jeffrey Leung (baritone), and Lucas Hopkins (bass) uphold the virtuosity, musicianship, and synergy for which the sextet's become known. As its Neil Armstrong-inspired title intimates, the release holds a connection to the two "Golden Records" that 1977's Voyager spacecrafts carried into the upper regions (recall that Armstrong, of “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” fame, was the first human to set foot on the moon as a member of 1969's Apollo 11 crew).
To that end, five of the album's fourteen pieces—Lorenzo Barcelata's “El Cascabel,” Chuck Berry's “Johnny B. Goode,” Marty Bloom's “Melancholy Blues,” Anthony Holborne's “Fairie Round,” and Mozart's Queen of the Night “Aria” (from The Magic Flute)—derive from the musical contents of the Voyager records, with the remainder works the group believes deserve “a place in the cosmos” too. The variety of the set-list mirrors the versatility of the group when its award-winning members bring backgrounds in classical, ragtime, jazz, pop, and folk to their shared endeavour. Among the companies with which individual members have performed are the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Toronto Symphony, and these six university professors have commissioned over 200 works between them. Eight of the arrangements are by ensemble members, three by Siegfried, two by Hopkins, and others by Hulting-Cohen, Piqué, and Goodman. One Giant Leap is, ostensibly, The Moanin' Frogs' “Golden Record.”
Many of the selections are original and inspired, beginning with Leonard Bernstein's infectious “Slava!” and Scott Joplin's irrepressible “Maple Leaf Rag,” both performed assiduously and with exuberance. The early days of jazz are accounted for in the slinky wail of “Melancholy Blues” and Joe Garland's rollicking “In the Mood,” and how wonderful it is to see Duke Ellington's “The Star-Crossed Lovers" included rather than something more obvious like “Satin Doll”; even better, the group seems as if it's channeling Duke's terrific woodwinds section in its own lustrous rendering. Picking up where Joplin leaves off, Bolcom's “Graceful Ghost Rag” (1970) beguiles with a swoon-inducing lilt.
Classical gets its due on the recording when pieces by J. S. Bach, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and William Bolcom appear. Movements from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor are performed with precision and perspicuity, its “Bourrées I and II” and “Badinerie” suitably rousing and the “Menuet” delicate. Mozart's Queen of the Night “Aria” is as engrossing as ever when transposed to saxophones; the sextet's performance of “Fanfare” from Also sprach Zarathustra, on the other hand, is surprisingly lacking in power and deserving of a more dynamic take. Whereas the performance of “El Cascabel” is effervescence incarnate, “Danny Boy” receives a touchingly heartfelt reading, with the group inserting an a cappella episode between instrumental sections.
With a programme that ranges so widely, differently inclined listeners will have their own favourites, and one person's first choice might well be another's last. I would have preferred to see crowd-pleasers such as “In the Mood” and “Johnny B. Goode” exchanged for less familiar material on the order of Ellington's exquisite “The Star-Crossed Lovers.” No matter the selection, however, The Moanin' Frogs deliver each with gusto, and the group's sincerity and affection for the material is never in doubt—even when playing something like James Horner's towering “My Heart Will Go On,” which another group might have handled ironically or tongue-in-cheek. There's also no denying the richness of the set-list, and with sixteen tracks packed into forty-six minutes, the recording is never wanting for momentum.December 2025