Big Bands are still around to give big sounds…
The Hammond is humming and the horns are calling as drummer David Gibson drives the rhythm teaof leader Radam Schartz, guitarist Charlie Sigler and 12 team horn section through some originals and hip covers. The team gets into a funky soul on the Isley Brothers hit “Between The Sheets” with Anthony Ware’s alto searing through the Leslies. Charles Mingus’ “Work Song” sways like a Pentecostal choir with some punches that would make Floyd Patterson jealous, while John Coltrane’s modal “Blue Minor” has the horns gorgeously cascading. With a vocal chorus, the team shuffles to the leader’s “Trouble Just Won’t Go Away” and Gibson rides the sticks like a wagon train on the air tight “Dig You Like Crazy”. JS Back closes things out with the horns producing an elegiac “Von Gott”, keeping the organ in the high church. A true living organ-ism.
Arranger, brass man and band leader Mike Fahie takes material from various classical composers and brings them up to 21st Century jazz mentalities. The 18 member team features some rich section work in the reeds as a support for Fahie’s trombone solo on a lurching take of JS Bach’s “Cantata BMV 21” , while his work on one of Debussy’s “Preludes” has him surrounded by a glorious brass secion. Jeff Davis’ drums build up the drama on Chopin’s flowing “Prelude Op 28 no. 20” while the horn sections waltz to Aaron Irwin’s alto sax on the clever and graceful Tchaikovsky “Symphony No 6 ‘Allegro Con Grazia”.” Eerie reeds lurk on Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and the woodwinds gloriously chirp to Chet Doxas’ tenor on Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”. Classical without any kitsch.