© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
The four-day Groovin’
Hard: Celebrating the Big Band Renaissance event commenced yesterday, Thursday,
October 10, 2012 under
the auspices of the Los Angeles Jazz Institute and its Director, Ken Poston.
For more
information on the Los Angeles Jazz Institute including ticket ordering for Groovin’
Hard, please visit www.lajazzinstitute.org
© -Gordon
Sapsed . Used with the author’s permission; copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
“The first
'proper' day of the latest LA Jazz Institute event started with Ken Poston
introducing a set of film clips to set the scene for the 'Big Band Renaissance'
theme.
The first clips
showed the Buddy Rich band soon after its rebirth in the late 1960's with a
Pacific Jazz recording contract and a line-up of new young players and the Thad
Jones - Mel Lewis band, which had come into being just previously with a New York
Other clips showed
the bands into the 70's, as well as clips of the Kenton Band at that time and,
from Europe , the Clark-Boland Band. Woody
Herman's Band, like others had younger players, more exotic uniforms and longer
hair styles as well as exciting new music.
The 300 or so
attendees at the event then had an hour-long concert of Thad Jones Mel Lewis
music delivered by the highly-talented California State University Northridge
'A' Band, directed by John Dave rsa. The performance was, by any test, outstanding - with perfect
ensemble playing and interesting solo work. It was no surprise that it ended
with the crowd on their feet and a standing ovation. Originally planned as an
outdoor concert, it had been moved indoors following an overnight forecast of
impending rain. Although there was no rain the venue change brought the benefit
of better sound which the music certainly warranted.
The concert that
followed was by an 11-piece band comprising top LA studio players, making its
first LAJI appearance. The Pete Christlieb-Linda Small 'Tall & Small' Band
has a 'four reeds' frontline - plus the leader making five, backed by co-leader
Linda on trombone and two trumpets plus a rhythm section.
Again, the music
was outstanding - much of it being from the pen of Bill Holman and appearing on
the first 'Tall and Small' album. The record sleeve describes the music as
'Contemporary', but most readers here will know it as interesting
tightly-written ensembles, with a linear writing style - very 'Bill Holman'
and following a West-Coast tradition, with a great deal of variety in the
voicing and ample solo space.
Unusually, Pete
Christlieb on this occasion played baritone on about half the numbers - such as
Mulligan's 'I know but I don't know how' and 'Young Blood'. Other titles
included 'Everything I Love', 'Ballade' and a delightful feature for the joint
leaders on 'The Meaning of the Blues'.
The other players
were Gary Foster, Terry Harrington, Alex Budman and Lee Secard who played all
saxes or all clarinets, or with two baritone saxes or two bass clarinets,
or including sopranos, as required.
The two trumpet
parts were played by Bob Summers and Jeff Bunnell, with Geoff Stradling (p),
Jim Hughart (b) and Steve Schaeffer (d).
The band is about
to record a second album - while the first, with those Bill Holman arrangements,
is available now as a CD or as a download from various sites.
Then - off to the
smaller room, where Larry Hathaway moderated what he described as the '257th
LAJI Kenton Panel discussion'. Kentonian alumni present this time were from
that 1970's era - Mike Vax, Jay Sollenberger, Al Yankee, Greg Smith and Jim
Oatts.
They recalled a
string of experiences most of which centered around Stan Kenton himself - from
an era when most of the band were newly out of music college and the leader was
several decades older. The stories were of unrelenting one-nighters interleaved
with a lot of jazz education camps and college dates and life on a bus.
The evening gave
an opportunity to hear those same players and a dozen others offering 'The
Creative World of Stan Kenton' in two one-hour sets.
Described as an
'All Star Band featuring Stan Kenton alumni', the orchestra was an 18-piece
aggregation, led by Mike Vax, who gave a commentary on all of the music -
selected primarily from the Kenton repertoire as offered in the 1970's. That did
not, of course, preclude music that originated earlier - indeed the most
spectacular item was ‘Peanut Vendor,’ which closed the first set and
involved the trumpets roaming the body of the hall. The opener had been 'Also
Sprach Zarathustra' which was, on this
occasion long-time Woody Herman trombonist John Fedchock's introduction to the
Kenton book - but he had Kenton veterans Eric Jorgensen, Roy Weigand and Kenny
Shroyer alongside him and Craig Gosnell handing the baritone and tuba parts.
Saxes Alex Budman, Roger Neumann and Doug Webb had Al Yankee and Greg Smith alongside them
- their showpieces included Kenton's first-ever arrangement for the band 'Reed
Rapture'.
Although Mike Vax
did not have his current alumni associates alongside him, he did have 1970's
bandmates Jay Sollenberger and Jim Oatts as well as Carl Saunders and Steve
Huffsteter. They all negotiated their way through some of the multi-rhythm Hank
Levy charts which saw their origin in the 70's as well as items from the Lennie
Niehaus 'dance' book.
Keeping the whole
thing together, with great verve and enthusiasm was Peter Erskine at the drums
and Dave Stone's authoritative bass. Pianist Geoff
Stradling had a night off from leading his own big band to take the piano
chair.
Other music heard
during these two sets included 'Chelsea Bridge', 'Here Comes That Rainy Day',
Gene Roland's 'Blues Story' and Willie Maiden's ‘Little Minor Blues’ ( or
'Booze', as first titled, apparently).
Throughout the
evening Mike Vax, whether up the back with the trumpets, or down the front, ran
his commentary on the music and Kentonian times in the 70's. One feature for
him was the 'Love Theme from Hair', which he set out to play 'dirtier' than
Jack Sheldon !
Unlike Mike's
Alumni Band, this evening WAS an exercise in Kentonian nostalgia, but the
audience, which included Joanne Kenton, Howard Rumsey and many other members of
the LA jazz elite as well as Kentonians from across the nation and abroad, were
on their feet to give a standing ovation when it ended with Bill Holman's
'Malaguena'.”
(Kentonia
subscribers who missed yesterday's 'Woody Herman' report can find it on Steve
Cerra's Cerrajazz blog : http://www.jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/)
