| Concert in the Garden | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Maria Schneider |
| Cover: | Concert_in_the_Garden_Cover.jpg |
| Recorded: | March 8–11, 2004 |
| Studio: | Avatar, New York City |
| Genre: | Jazz, big band |
| Length: | 58:13 |
| Label: | ArtistShare |
| Producer: | Maria Schneider |
| Chronology: | Maria Schneider |
| Prev Title: | Allégresse |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Sky Blue |
| Next Year: | 2007 |
Concert in the Garden is the fourth studio album by American jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album was released in 2004 by ArtistShare and won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2005.[1]
In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[2]
Schneider's three previous albums were nominated for Grammy Awards, but the previous one, Allégresse, was released four years before Concert in the Garden. The delay has been attributed to the financial difficulty of recording with large groups, which are required for the music that Schneider writes.[3]
Compared to previous albums, this album is more classical than jazz, with a greater influence of Brazilian, Spanish, and flamenco music.
The JazzTimes review was mostly positive, stating, "Three Romances" and "Buleria, Solea y Rumba" "are revelatory in their complete realization", but the solos on the other pieces "are not strong enough to provide sufficient contrast to the piece's slow, hovering progress".
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a maximum four stars and added it to the book's Core Collection. It stated that the title-track was “a slight disappointment”, but overall the album was "the great achievement of her career so far."
The album was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2019. In its citation, the Library of Congress stated that, alongside its musical merits, Concert in the Garden