(2015-06-27) Defying Death Jazz Big Bands Strike Back Into The Spotlight

Defying death: Jazz big bands strike back into the spotlight. I’m defining jazz orchestra broadly (see discography) to include rock- or blues-oriented groups with at least three horn players who improvise to show the large form’s ongoing influence.

Two auspicious and related examples of full jazz orchestras with brand-new recordings are "The Thompson Fields" by the Maria Schneider Orchestra and "Lines of Color" by The Gil Evans Project – formed and led by Verona native Ryan Truesdell.

the Evans influence seems ascendant – in Schneider, Truesdell and the brilliant Canadian composer-orchestra leader Christine Jensen, among others. The primary influence of Schneider, the premier orchestra leader in jazz today, is Evans, the impressionistic sorcerer who conjured palpably evocative backdrops for Miles Davis’ classic albums "Miles Ahead," "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain." In fact, Schneider served as Evans’ musical assistant for three years before his death in 1988.

*Numerous recent orchestra recordings defy the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, not to mention jazz’s small presence in corporate-controlled, bottom-line radio and music industries. Try maintaining a 16-to-18 musician ensemble that requires extensive rehearsal, a collective response to one leader’s creative whim and will, in an art dominated by the "rugged-individual" instrumentalist. "Shocking" is what Truesdell calls all the recording and activity.

"But people are getting grant money and finding ways," he said in a phone interview. "And it is so much cheaper to make a recording now. You can you record them on your own. Or they do live recordings which are so much easier to do. There is a cost-effective ways of making a big-band work.*

Perhaps the seeds for a new golden age of orchestra were sown in 1997 when Wynton Marsalis and his orchestra bested all "legit" composers for the Pulitzer for Best Musical Composition, for the soulfully solemn orchestral oratorio "Blood on the Fields." It has spurred other ambitious jazz orchestral inquiries into African-America history.

Among other important current recorded ensembles are The Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, the Vanguard Orchestra, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, The SFJazz Collective, The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra, The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, "Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project" led by Rufus Reid, The Chris Potter Underground Orchestra, The Archie Shepp Attica Blues Orchestra, and 2015 Grammy album winners, Arturo O’Farrell and the Latin Jazz Orchestra for "The Offense of the Drum" and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band for "Life in the Bubble."

Most jazz orchestras require strong reading ability of sometimes devilishly complex charts, the disciplined ear for harmonizing, counterpoint and tricky time signatures, as well as individual imagination and virtuosity for soloing. A gifted composer-arranger like Schneider, Marsalis, Argue or Jensen – or the SFJazz Collective’s multiple composer-arrangers, including the brilliant Miguel Zenon – can make musical magic with such forces. And that magic, one that transports the imagination and spirit, never goes out of style.