Thursday, 3 July 2008

Concert review: Marsalis, jazz orchestra swing through diverse program

Concert review |



Under the musical direction of legendary trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has a reputation for enlightening audiences about jazz in all its infinite varieties. And, yes, for entertaining people, too.



One mission was indistinguishable from the other during the orchestra's thrilling Tuesday show at Benaroya Hall, part of Seattle Symphony's ambitious SummerFest program.



The JLCO brought a big-band sound that was amazingly malleable. The 15-piece group covered everything from Duke Ellington's tricky "Braggin' in Brass" (Marsalis called it almost unplayable, then proceeded to play it) to a swatch of Marsalis' own instrumental sacred music to a melancholy, beautiful arrangement of Benny Carter's final composition.



Along the way, the band's renowned, razor-sharp discipline was offset by Marsalis' collegial approach to running the show. Sitting in the last row with other trumpeters, his laidback banter between tunes was funny and casually informative.



Marsalis has often led the JLCO through entire performances built around a tribute or an ambitious composition. But Tuesday saw a diverse program beginning with two movements from band saxophonist Ted Nash's original suite about great artists, "Portrait in Seven Shades."



The first piece, celebrating French Impressionist Claude Monet, was appropriately watery, blurring form, time and color until the music almost seemed to be reflecting itself. The second subject, Pablo Picasso, was rendered with a composition that began with the ambience of a bullfight and gradually piled rhythms, sax bursts and a long solo by Marsalis atop an angular brass attack. The dynamic number sounded, well, Cubist.



"That's fun," an out-of-breath Marsalis said afterward.



A couple of spiritual pieces were among the boldest performances. Oliver Nelson's fascinating arrangement of "Down by the Riverside" treated the familiar melody as a passing wave of brass quickly supplanted by Elliot Mason's volatile trombone, an oddly lurching rhythm, and pianist Dan Nimmer's unflagging, modal playing.



Marsalis' fantastic "The Holy Ghost" found Nimmer pounding out a deep, mesmerizing riff answered by the sound of horns feverishly shouting and sliding upward to the invisible.



On the silkier end, Nash's cosmopolitan arrangement of Lee Morgan's "Ceora" was sultry, lush and romantic. Saxophonist Sherman Irby's gorgeous lead on Carter's "Again and Again" rang with a lifetime's worth of wisdom and yearning.



SummerFest director and fiddler Mark O'Connor, who has recorded with Marsalis, dropped by for a loose jam. But for sheer fun there was Marsalis' spontaneous showmanship at the end, standing at the edge of the stage and playing to gathered fans.



He played all the way out the door, making for a truly swinging exit.



Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com








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