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![\"SRJO](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/SRJO-KentonMulligan.jpg\")
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Although the SRJO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mulligan repertoire focused on arrangements that he wrote for the Kenton orchestra, it included a cross section of pieces he composed or arranged for his own Concert Jazz Band and for others. The earliest was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Joost at the Roost,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which Mulligan wrote in 1948 for the Claude Thornhill band and, in a pared-down version, for the Miles Davis \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Birth of the Cool\u00e2\u20ac\u009d nonet. Neither Thornhill nor Davis recorded the piece. Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1961 recording for Verve was never released. The SRJO worked from a score edited by Jeff Sultanof. In his comments on the piece on the e Jazz Lines<\/em><\/a> website, Sultanof remarks,<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6what is striking is that as early as 1948, Mulligan shows in this score that he had already formulated a concept to turn the big band into an extended small group, with linear give-and-take as in his small group with Chet Baker, and a lighter ensemble approach to orchestration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The give-and-take included a robust extended tenor saxophone solo by Travis Ranney, with shorter tenor sax statements by Mark Taylor. Clarinetist Tobi Stone and pianist Randy Halberstadt also soloed on the piece. On Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Swing House,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the vigorous trombonist Bill Anthony initiated a string of solos that included The one-chorus performance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where or When,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d deliciously unhurried, had two highlights: the rhythm section\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delicacy as they introduced the piece, and the dynamics of the reeds performing the saxophone soli that Mulligan wrote as what amounts to an orchestrated improvisation. In a concert featuring Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music, it was natural that the veteran baritone saxophonist Bill Ramsay drew solo assignments on several pieces. Ramsay shone in Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s celebrated arrangement of Django Reinhardt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Manoir de mes R\u00c3\u00aaves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sometimes called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Django\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Castle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n With a tone deeper and wider than Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and a wit as dry, Ramsay poured himself into his solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bweebida Bobbida.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The harmonic structure of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Got Rhythm,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which Mulligan used for the tune, is important to the The co-leaders of the band are educators, Brockman at the University of Washington, Acox the award-winning director of the Garfield High School Band that has produced a number of graduates now prominent as The exception to the Kenton\/Mulligan rule was the concert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opening number, the late Bob Florence\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carmelo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s by the Freeway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carmelo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, a Los Angeles jazz club is gone and so is Florence. The spirit they represented survives in the work of the SRJO<\/a>. From the quality of playing by those six youngsters, it looks as if the spirit has a future. To flourish, all it needs is an audience. There was a sprinkling of listeners under 40 in the hall yesterday afternoon, but no survey was necessary to conclude that the average age was well into AARP territory. I am told that the evening concert in Seattle on Saturday had a higher proportion of younger folks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [contextly_auto_sidebar id=”dmP0gy45aFwPc4OArEnU9dsA0FMmyv2g”] With considerable help from the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Stan Kenton and Gerry Mulligan packed two halls over the weekend. Yesterday the SRJO played at the Kirkland Performance Center across Lake Washington from Seattle, the night before at the Nordstrom Recital Hall in downtown Seattle. The band is co-led by drummer Clarence Acox […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Michael Brockman on alto saxophone, Taylor on tenor and trumpeter Jay Thomas, whose combination of daring and precision has been a feature of the band since its founding nearly two decades ago. Thomas went to the front of the stage for his feature, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All the Things You Are.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As successful as he was in mining the riches in Jerome Kern\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harmonies, he outdid himself in an extended improvised cadenza.<\/p>\n<\/a> harmonic underpinnings of jazz, but musicians rarely play the song itself. The irony of Ramsay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beginning his solo with the first eight notes of Gershwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s melody struck some of his colleagues as such an amusingly absurd statement of the obvious that I wondered if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d pull themselves together in time to play their next passages. Trombonist David Marriott recovered, and played a fine solo.
\nMulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Apple Core,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d based on the harmonies of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love Me or Leave Me\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was a feature for a long, successful tenor solo by Mark Taylor. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For Zoot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, and though Zoot Sims\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence was audible, Taylor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s individuality predominated.<\/p>\n<\/a>The only arrangement chosen by the SRJO that Kenton wrote was one of the several versions of his theme that he put together over the years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Artistry in Rhythm\u00e2\u20ac\u009d opened, as Kenton often began it, with out-of-tempo piano, played with impressionistic overtones by Randy Halberstadt. As the piece progressed in intensity, Bill Anthony\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo recalled such extrovert Kenton trombonists as Bob Burgess, Kent Larsen and Milt Bernhart. Trumpeter Thomas Marriott, played high and fast, with flurries of sixteenth notes, kicking the piece into full Kentonesque bravado that merged into a percussion fiesta by co-leader Acox and the band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s newest member, conga drummer Frank Francis Medina, Jr.<\/p>\n<\/a>professionals. Trombonist Scott Brown heads the band program at Roosevelt High School. Like Acox\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Garfield jazz band, Roosevelt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consistently wins national competitions. Acox introduced six recent graduates from Garfield and Roosevelt, and one from Mt. Si<\/a> High School. All are going on to university music programs and schools including Princeton, The New School and the University of Washington. With the SRJO, the youngsters played \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Little Minor Booze,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a classic b-flat blues written by the late Willie Maiden for the Kenton band. All soloed at a high level, but the one who particularly caught my ear was tenor saxophonist Isak Washburn-Gaines, a Garfield High graduate. It is unexpected and gratifying to hear a 17- or 18-year old boy who has absorbed Al Cohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of playing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an old soul,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Acox said of Washburn-Gaines after the concert.<\/p>\n