| Playground | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Robert Mazurek Chicago Underground Orchestra |
| Cover: | Playground (Rob Mazurek album).jpg |
| Released: | February 10, 1998 |
| Recorded: | March 1 & 2, 1996 and January 6 & 7, 1997 |
| Studio: | Idful, Chicago, Illinois |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 68:06 |
| Label: | Delmark DE-503 |
| Producer: | Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker |
| Chronology: | Robert Mazurek |
| Prev Title: | The Unstable Molecule |
| Prev Year: | 1998 |
| Next Title: | 12° of Freedom |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
Playground is an album by Robert Mazurek Chicago Underground Orchestra which was released on the Delmark label in 1998.[1] [2] [3]
In his review for AllMusic, Rick Watrous states: "A revelation. Cornetist Mazurek and his Chicago Underground Orchestra create some of the freshest sounds of late-'90s jazz. Mazurek and Parker's original tunes have the loose improvisatory feel of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock's late-'60s compositions, giving soloists free reign [sic] to strut their stuff. ... Imaginative use of instrumental colors and combinations prevail throughout the album".
On All About Jazz Jack Bowers said: "This is an interesting and varied session... Mazurek has abandoned neither melody, harmony nor rhythm, and the band's hard-bop origins can also be discerned from time to time ... Throughout, Rob and the band shrewdly employ uncommon elements - the sound of a glockenspiel or bamboo flute, for example - to accentuate their singular point of view. Everyone is on the same page, and those who fancy Jazz that veers slightly off the beaten path without self-indulgent cerebralism should find this picturesque Playground well-suited to whatever musical byways they might care to pursue"[4]
All compositions by Robert Mazurek except where noted