The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Local concerts offer two different looks at jazz

By Matt Warner, Contributing Writer 4:06 PM Friday, November 20, 2009

Two jazz shows in Dayton this week will offer listeners a study in contrast. The first will feature a big band playing a variety of jazz styles in a concert hall setting, while the other is a small group playing straight ahead jazz in a traditional club setting.

The Sinclair Community College Jazz Ensemble is the first group, performing on the Sinclair Community College campus. The big band performs four times a year, three of which have a guest artist. One show per year is always dedicated to the band itself, like the concert this Tuesday, Nov. 24. Other dates this year include concerts featuring the group’s director, saxophonist Bruce Jordan in January, one with trombonist Jim Pugh in March, and one with trumpet guru Wayne Bergeron in April.

The Sinclair band is a mixture of students and alumni, as well as local amateur and professional musicians. Jordan is excited to demonstrate the diversity of the band’s personnel and repertoire, citing an arrangement of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” featuring pianist Jeff Black as one of the program’s highlights. He’s also hoping that some arrangements by Gordon Goodwin will light up the crowd.

“(Goodwin) is one heck of a writer. I think what he writes, the younger crowd can relate to it,” says Jordan. “It’s stuff that can get to them.”

Jordan, always hoping to attract young listeners, says that Sinclair students that attend the Jazz Ensemble concerts are often “blown away” and get hooked.

“Most of them have probably never heard a jazz big band live before,” he says. “If you can just get them to go for the first time, they find that they really enjoy it.”

For a different perspective, listeners can go to Jazz Central Friday night and hear a small group of seasoned musicians led by Columbus saxophonist Gene Walker. Walker, 71, has played with a roster that spans from The Beatles to Elvin Jones. He always “puts the gig first,” but when the gig is his own you can enjoy a fat, supple tenor sax sound that draws on Gene Ammons and Stanley Turrentine. Walker is looking forward to playing the music he loves best at Jazz Central.

“I recognize what (Jazz Central owner Butch Stone) is trying to do, trying to present real jazz,” says Walker. “He doesn’t want me to come in and play a bunch of rock. He wants some straight ahead jazz, and that’s what I’m about and what I’ve always been about.”

Walker will play in a quartet format that will include organist Chino Fester.

“He’s a groove man, and that’s what I love,” Walker says. “Chino’s always had that, even as we were coming up as teenagers. He always struck a groove ... and he can sing!”

Walker says that the band will play mostly “songs that people know” in a personal but familiar style. He believes that being authentic is attractive to listeners of all ages.

“There is definitely a young audience (for jazz) and they’re starved for it,” he says. “Once they open up their ears to it, they love it.”

Matt Warner is a contributing writer on music for the Dayton Daily News. He can be reached by e-mail at warner.matt@me.com. Jazzbeat appears every Sunday.

Share this article