Same pictures - new exhibition

This review encouraged me to buy Same pictures - new exhibition, a jazz version of Modest Mussorgsky's well known piece, the Pictures at an exhibition. There's loads of versions and recordings of this piece around, which has originally been composed for the piano. My reference is a BBC Philharmonic recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral transcription.

This double-CD album is fabulous. It pretty much retains the structure of the original work, while the half-hour musical substance is almost tripled by the "minimal big band's" very own variations on the themes presented. I have a feeling that Mussorgsky would have absolutely loved it! While this recording is a very interesting and pleasant standalone jazz record, it might also be a good starting point for an amateur of classical music who is interested to know what that jazz thing is all about ...