Maria Schneider Orchestra

THURS.-SUN., SEPT. 23-26

JUST A FEW MINUTES into Concert in the Garden, the new release from Maria Schneider and her orchestra, a kind of Glenn Gould humming creeps into the track. At first I thought it must be Schneider herself, offering an impromptu accompaniment to her 17-plus-piece jazz band from the podium. But then the vocal line takes off, soon entwined in conversation with accordion, guitar and piano, and I check my liner notes.

Turns out to be the egoless contribution of Luciana Souza, who impresses not only for her style, but her ability to perform timbrally inside the band rather than demanding a spotlight all her own. Souza will be on hand for at least one of the sets (no confirmation yet which one) during the multi-night run of the Maria Schneider Orchestra at the Jazz Standard later this week in celebration of their CD release. In a scheduling coup that Schneider puts on par with aligning the planets, the entire core band will be in attendance each night, likely spilling over the edges of the stage.

The album began distribution through Schneider's website two months ago. Actually, the disc is only available that way-she has cut out the labels and the distro and gone right to her fans after years of scraping to put out discs that sold well but never turned a profit.

Critics have already been turning in complimentary reviews, but almost all question whether what Schneider is up to should really be called "jazz."

And that's just fine by Schneider. "To me, music is music," she says. "My music is jazz because it couldn't possibly be played by non-jazz musicians, but it also couldn't be played by musicians who weren't classically trained. That's my background too-it's classical, it's jazz, it's a lot of different things. It's the sum of everything I listen to, which now includes Brazilian music and flamenco and all these other things that I love, so I like that there's no label for it."

By far my favorite track on Concert in the Garden is the "Pas de Deux," which Schneider says will be a repeater throughout the four-night run. Counter to the seemingly standard jazz philosophy that a duet is a competition, it exemplifies the fact that two artists might also complement one another, entering into the music as if engaging in a dance rather than a fistfight.

Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-576-2232, Thurs. & Sun., 7:30 & 9:30, $25; Fri. & Sat. 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30, $30.