Text review of Oct 2011 Festival by Jeff Krow in Audiophile Audition; Video by Scott Jenkins.
Los Angeles Jazz Institute (as part of its bi-annual, 4-day, Jazz festival entitled Modern Sounds: Celebrating the West Coast Sound at Los Angeles Airport Marriott) festival director, Ken Poston, decided this festival’s focus was to be the music and arrangements of West Coast (1950s) jazz masters.
“Modern Sounds” featured more concerts over the weekend than on any prior festival. The bands were led by band leaders who largely reside in the greater Los Angeles area. The festival’s premier band leaders – Gerald Wilson, Bill Holman, Terry Gibbs, Johnny Mandel, and Lanny Morgan have made Los Angeles their home base for years. Their band members, as pointed out in this review, are the cream of the crop of local talent, who make their living in LA.
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Watch clips from the performances and Scott Jenkins' interviews with the artists and curators there.
“Modern Sounds” featured more concerts over the weekend than on any prior festival. The bands were led by band leaders who largely reside in the greater Los Angeles area. The festival’s premier band leaders – Gerald Wilson, Bill Holman, Terry Gibbs, Johnny Mandel, and Lanny Morgan have made Los Angeles their home base for years. Their band members, as pointed out in this review, are the cream of the crop of local talent, who make their living in LA.
Along with panel discussions and rare films offered during the day (and a daily lunch concert by the pool), the evening’s theme concerts were dedicated to Shorty Rogers on Thursday night; Gerry Mulligan on Friday night; Jazz Goes to Hollywood (West Coast jazz used for film scores in the 1950s) on Saturday night; and an evening with jazz masters Bill Holman and Gerald Wilson’s big bands on Sunday night.
Sunday afternoon and evening memories were made by a panel with 93 year old legend Gerald Wilson; followed by David Paich, from Toto fame, leading his father Marty’s arrangements from I Get a Boot Out of You. An added touch was provided Mel Torme’s son, Jamie, vocalizing on three tunes at the end of the set. From father to son…
Sunday night brought an Evening with the Masters: Bill Holman and Gerald Wilson’s Big Bands. Holman’s set had arrangements of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” as well as Holman staples, “Sweet Spot,” “Just Friends,” and “Bari Me Not,” a feature for Bob Efford, on the big horn.
Wilson’s big band brought rousing versions of “Blues for the Count” (Basie), bluesy renditions showing Gerald’s fascination with Stravinsky, and Debussy, with familiar melodies blending with big band blow-out power. Gerald showed off family members, son, guitarist, Anthony, and grandson, Eric Otis, who led the band in his own new composition (from Gerald’s latest CD), “September Sky” that was simply sublime.
The Los Angeles Jazz Institute’s weekend festivals are unique in that they celebrate the heyday of West Coast jazz, that being largely the decade of the 1950s into the early ’60s, when many East Coast bands and individuals came out to Los Angeles to experience the balmy LA weather and the cool relaxed scene. Many stayed for the film, TV, and commercial work that they found in Southern California. Howard Rumsey’s Jazz Lighthouse All-Stars found an adoring following, and its members, including Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins, and many others made the cool yet swinging sound the trademark of West Coast jazz. Most present day attendees of Poston directed weekend festivals were either residents of LA or long time devotees of the sound that emanated from LA area. They return each year from all over the country and across the pond from England and Europe.
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