Jazz band puts a rollicking touch to some old favorites

VIRGINIA BEACH

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has a mission to inspire and grow the audience for jazz. After playing at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night, they could say: Mission accomplished.

Wynton Marsalis led the 14 other members of the band in a masterful display.

Marsalis emceed the show from the back row with three other trumpet players, behind a row of three trombones and then the five woodwinds down front. The piano, upright bass and drums were to his right.

He was an amiable host, who explained that his biggest challenge was keeping track of who had gotten to play solo to make sure that they all got time to shine. Another challenge, and a good one to have, must be to decide what songs to play and whose arrangements to feature, because each member of the band also is an accomplished arranger.

In the first set, they showed the power of jazz to take a song and push it past its original confines into something new and exciting, as they interpreted what Marsalis called "nursery songs."

Three highlights were Vincent Gardner's arrangement of "Rubber Duckie," Marsalis' take on "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and the set-ending "Chicken Rhythm."

Gardner, called "a Virginian" and "your home boy" by Marsalis, grew up in Virginia Beach and graduated from Bethel High School in Hampton. He turned the simple "Sesame Street" song into a complicated piece, sometimes soulful, sometimes playful - and turned in a powerful trombone solo as well.

I'm guessing Marsalis doesn't care much for spiders, or at least has a healthy respect for them, because his arrangement of "Itsy Bitsy" - heavy on the woodwinds and trombone - was kind of slow, dark and creepy, not at all a pleasant nursery rhyme. Even so, it was compelling.

To close the first set, Gardner sang "Chicken Rhythm," a straight forward, rollicking, swinging piece that Marsalis introduced as "the silliest of all the songs ever played." Yes, it did include Gardner, Marsalis and other band members "bluck-bluck-bluckawing" but the musicianship moved the song from ridiculous to sublime in the way they conjured up swing and barnyard sounds together.

The second set featured the music of Thelonious Monk, the great jazz pianist and composer.

But first they bounced through "Fiesta in Brass." Afterward, Marsalis said, giving the audience a chance to catch its breath, "That's some big band music right there.... It was good then and it's good now. It's like water..." he paused and grinned, " and other things. Things that have stood the test of time."

Then it was time to delve into Monk, starting with bass player Carlos Henriquez's arrangement of "Bye-Ya" and then quickly moving into another piece that was never introduced.

Marsalis started that with his horn, was joined by bass, drums and piano, and then explored the outer reaches of speed and the upper reaches of the trumpet. The entire band met the challenge of the piece in matching some of the lightning fast passages that reflected Marsalis' playing.

Pianist Dan Nimmer in particular shined during the Monk pieces.

The triumphant final song, Marsalis said, had no title, except "No. 12." It was fast and beautiful. As parting gifts, the audience received a remarkable solo by trumpet player Sean Jones and a passage in which the three trombonists, Gardner, Elliot Mason and Chris Crenshaw, passed the solo to each other repeatedly and seamlessly.

The concert was over all too soon, but it was a delight.

Dan Duke, (757) 446-2546, dan.duke@pilotonline.com