ON the Beat | Big Band Jazz, Big Pipe Organ News

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on November 28, 2024. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Taking in a good jazz big band, heard live and freshly cooked before our ears, is a unique and satisfying pleasure. It’s also a rare pleasure in Santa Barbara, which adds to the specialness of the occasions. We got a strong dose of big band splendor when the Pacific Jazz Orchestra performed —  last spring and again in September — at the Granada Theatre.

Closer to home, there were two recent public outings from the genuinely marvelous and flexible Santa Barbara City College-based Monday Madness band, first at SOhO a few weeks back and as the sparkling headliner of last week’s semi-annual SPCC Jazz Big Band Blowout at the Garvin Theater. Incidental note: both shows were on Mondays. Officially, this is the night of the week often giving over to more adventurous and less commercial musical endeavors — as with Los Angeles’ legendary experimental series Monday Evening Concerts. It’s a night when most musicians aren’t working “straighter” and money gigs.

Big band Jazz was on the civic brain last week, between the three ensemble Garvin concert — also including the student “Good Times” band and the tight “Lunch Break” band, which won our love with the opener, Neal Hefti’s “Whirly Bird,” and memorable moments including tenor saxist Julio Longoob’s eloquently lyrical take on “Skylark.” It was also a treat to hear trumpeter Jim Mooy, normally in front as a band director, showing his considerable taste and skill as a player. Two nights later, SOhO hosted the Jon Nathan-directed UCSB Jazz Ensemble, paying tribute to the music of Herbie Hancock. (SBCC jazz combos will take to the SOhO stage on Monday, December 2).

But the jazz week highlight was clearly all about Monday Madness. On the evidence of the recent Garvin set, we were reminded that this powerful and fine ensemble, led by saxophonist Andrew Martinez, is not only a prize locally, but one of the stronger big bands in Southern California. Its ranks include players from the 805 and the Los Angeles area, including the powertrain swinger Dick Weller on drums last week.

Coming out swinging potently, the band laid into John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice” and an uptempo “It Could Happen to You,” sparked by solos from the smooth and excellent tenor saxist Justin Claveria and others.

As invigorating as the Madness set was, an air of poignancy and mourning hovered over the Garvin for longtime and passionate musician Carlos Angel Maya (1975-2024), who passed away the week prior. Martinez paid respects and told anecdotes about Maya, whose loss was also commemorated by the presence of his empty chair in the trombone section, with a flower wreath and Raiders cap along with his bass bone to the side. The horn was mute, but Maya’s legacy lives on in the jazz ensemble world here.

The band also gave a respectful nod to the recently-passed titan Quincy Jones, with his tune “Quintessence” — dedicated to Maya.

Sublime Piping

Speaking of musical niches deserving wider recognition, Santa Barbara’s otherwise rich musical tapestry is lean when it comes to pipe organ recitals. Our town boasts three fine church organs — the largest at First Presbyterian, along with Trinity Episcopal and First United Methodist churches — and the best listening ops come through attending services. But more concentrated organ showcases and recitals are in order (says those of us in the organ nerd club).

Thanks to the much-valued Santa Barbara Music Club, the fine Orange County-based organist Tom Mueller gave the Methodist Church organ an inspiring run for its money on a recent Saturday afternoon. Mueller, who performed here two years ago, came equipped with a varied but integrated program, opening with a masterful rendering of J.S. Bach (Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C) and including Mueller’s own inventive and occasionally jazz-tinged variations on the 16th century Lutheran chorale “Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern (How Brightly Shines the Morning Star).” The same chorale was the loose basis of a closing “Fantasie” by 19th century composer Heinrich Reimann, with its wide berth of dynamics and colors, verging on orchestral sound palette. In other words, the score capitalizes on the organ’s natural broad-textured domain of sonic possibilities.

Also on the program, with a more impressionistic leaning, was Basque composer Ermend Bonnal’s “La Vallee du Behorleguy, au matin,” flavored with regional folk music spices.

Beyond the specific virtues of this performance, it was a treat to hear this grand and ancient instrument in recital mode. These instruments, which literally use the host buildings as resonating bodies, also celebrate the august and historic nature of their “venues.”

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Album Notes from All Over

We’re launching a new feature of “ON the Beat,” dipping into the dizzying pool of new albums worth checking out.

Befitting a column about the joys jazz and pipe organ, one of my favorites releases of 2024 gives due expressive spotlight to Kit Downes, one of the greatest proponents of a jazz sensibility on pipe organ (vs. the more common Hammond B-3). The Brit Downes is also an excellent and exploratory pianist, but his organ work deserves specialist credit. I first heard him playing the majestic organ in Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, as part of a JazzFest Berlin collaboration with the venturesome Trondheim Voices.

Downes recently teamed up with a pair of legends — guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Andrew Cyrille — for a fascinating and genre-defying trio project, Breaking the Shell (listen here). On a program oscillating between free improvisation, taut structural passages and a general sense of textural experimentation, the trio conjures up a new kind of musical magic — rooted in jazz but with tentacles in new music and experimentalism that doesn’t bite. Wintry meditational elements also figure into the cohesive mix.

Downes’ assured understanding of — and inchoate curiosity about — the pipe organ links beautifully with Frisell in the more “outside” mode of his broad vocabulary — which he doesn’t often access in his own current projects. Cyrille fits in with his usual organic adaptational savvy. Breaking the Shell is a left-field jewel, coated with contemplation and mutual deep-diving.

(Further examples of Downes’ organ work here)

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TO-DOINGS:

The Santa Ynez Valley Concert Series raises its curtain once more in 2024, part of its five-concert 2024-25 season. This time out, the famed counter tenor John Holiday, joined by pianist Kevin Miller, will perform at St. Mark’s in-the-Valley Episcopal Church in Los Olivos, on Sunday, December 1 at 4 p.m. Holiday — described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the finest countertenors of his generation”— is an especially versatile musician, who nabbed a prize in TV’s 2020 The Voice and has appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and even a stop at NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concerts” desk.

Seasonal greetings: while we have much to be fearful of, given the black forces headed to the White House, we also have much to be grateful for. The list includes friends & family, a bodacious place we call home, and bonus helpings of turkey (apologies to the turkey community).

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all, on all sides of the aisle.