By Tom Ineck

LINCOLN, Neb.—Classical brass ensembles are no strangers to the Christmas holiday repertoire, but when the Boston Brass is augmented by the Brass All-Stars Big Band, the result is especially, festive, swinging and hilarious. With 12 horns and a three-piece rhythm section, the music packs a wallop, as demonstrated to an audience of nearly 1,800 brave souls who ventured out on a frigid Dec. 11 night to the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

In their final performance of the “Christmas Bells Are Swingin’” tour, the musicians seemed in good humor despite the weather and a two-set song list that seldom varied from the program. Many of the seasonal favorites were first arranged by Ralph Carmichael for the Stan Kenton band in 1961, but some received updated treatments by members of the brass ensemble.

While remaining faithful to the melody and the mood, Kenton’s arrangement of “Joy to the World” ended in a trumpet high note that got everyone’s attention. Tuba virtuoso Andrew Hitz worked hard on Carmichael’s “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” the band swung in waltz time on “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” and trumpeter Rich Kelley took the lead on “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and again on a Latin treatment of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” where he was strongly accompanied by tuba, piano and drums.

French horn player J.D. Shaw also contributed several arrangements, including appropriately leaping takes on three dances from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” performed by the brass quintet and prominently featuring Jose Sibaja doubling on piccolo trumpet and flugelhorn and Lance LaDuke on euphonium. Shaw’s “Jingle Bells Forever” was done Sousa-style with drums added. The entire band returned to close the first half with Carmichael’s arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

The five-piece ensemble also added drums to open the second set with a brightly swinging Shaw arrangement of “Frosty the Snowman.” A trio of traditional tunes arranged by Carmichael followed with “Good King Wenceslas,” “Once in Royal David’s City” and “The Holly and the Ivy,” replete with sleigh bells and whistling bandmates for the perfect holiday effect. One of the most amazing performances of the evening was solo trombone tour de force by LaDuke on “The Christmas Song.” Accompanied only by Cutler on piano, he created devilishly difficult variations on the familiar theme, wittily quoting “Tequila” and asking the audience, “Do you folks know how hard this is?”

Comic antics included pianist David Cutler’s use of Ping-Pong balls to deaden the strings on a variation of “O Christmas Tree.” Trombonist Lance LaDuke performed his comic composition “Wonderful Time of the Year” on ukulele, Cutler uncorked a twisted version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” that combined elements of rock and jazz in a style reminiscent of Frank Zappa, and the band ended the concert with a take on “Greensleeves” described as “loud, angry and violent.”

top

By Jesse Starita

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Jazz has a unique ability to weave together the lives of its sundry performers into a single fabric. As an art form, it’s inclusive yet selective, accepting but arduous. Those who make it—or those who aspire—to the music’s summit, approach it from every conceivable angle. This is what keeps the music, the means to an end, fresh. On Nov. 20 at the Blue Room, alto saxophonist Logan Richardson and his quartet elegantly braided their own scattered origins into that unique fabric.

Although Richardson, still just 30, left his native Kansas City for New York nine years ago, the blues and swing of his roots are infused with a serene, introspective timbre. Long steady whispers give way to a molten chute of breakneck, buoyant phrases, like an idle horse that suddenly bolts into action when kicked by its rider. On this particular Saturday, veteran drummer Billy Hart expertly played the part of the rider, booting and whipping his bass and snare; charging forward when necessary, retiring where permitted. Bassist Tarus Mateen, who’s equally comfortable and fluent working with hip-hop outfit Outkast or jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris, warmly inserted pithy and dexterous solos. The final thread presented a wholly different kind of veteran: Israeli army vet and pianist Shirmit Shoshan, whose looks, background and musical inclination proved a fascinating contrast. 

Richardson began with an amorous soliloquy, well-conceived and self-possessed. His years at Berklee College of Music and The New School University quickly revealed themselves in the flowing, amorphous compositions and interpretations of standards. On Herbie Hancock’s “One Finger Snap,” Richardson’s solo shimmered, the notes patiently resting in the air until Hart’s whips and cracks set the direction. As one song cascaded instantly to the next, my overworked right hand began to ache. Finally, at the conclusion of the fourth number, Richardson introduced his quartet and, pausing for a moment, asked them, “What was that last song we played?” Quizzical looks were exchanged. “Stablemates,” responded Shoshan.

Richardson’s laissez faire approach, not to be confused with dispassion, feels like an emerging maxim for the young jazz artist, where complexity overtakes form and formulas of eras past are recycled to create sounds that at once drift, swirl and captivate.

After a lengthy intermission, Richardson re-introduced his band and called attention to a woman seated alone at a candle-lit table. “I’d like to recognize somebody in the audience who’s very special to me and that’s my mother,” said Richardson, motioning his hands to the back of the room. Coincidence or otherwise, after that moment, he sounded more at home, as though freed from New York’s cosmopolitanism or Berklee’s lecture halls.

Well into the second set, a slow blues churned from Mateen’s bass. At center stage, lips sealed around the mouthpiece, Richardson found a dampened wail that he’d eluded all night and—judging from the audience’s hoots and hollers—one which they were eager to share with him. His quartet had, like jazz, unwound their individual threads, entwined their strengths and wove into the fabric a lasting strand rich in expression.

top

Editor’s Note: At your request, we will mail a printed version of the newsletter. The online newsletter also is available at this website in pdf format for printing. Just click here: Newsletter