Fusion wasn’t invented in the 1970s. In the late ’30s, an earlier generation of jazz musicians reached across the borders of their music—this time to the classical tradition. On Book of Rhapsodies, The Ghost Train Orchestra rediscovers and rearranges compositions by four jazz combo leaders of the ’30s who worked in this field: Alex Wilder, John Kirby, Raymond Scott and Reginald Foresythe. The Ghost Train stays close to the spirit of the originals; their lively jazz orchestral settings occasionally quote the classics directly but more often couple classical melodic ideas with jazz rhythms.
