REVIEW Dave Douglas Big Band at the Hollywood Bowl

Friday July 30, 2010

from LA Times

A night of big band at the Hollywood Bowl
By Chris Barton

“Big bands are definitely not coming back,” George Carlin once declared in a bit from the ’80s, where he posed as Jesus Christ sitting down for an interview. While their golden age certainly has passed, what was as true then as it is now is that big bands have never entirely disappeared, and in fact, there is considerable evidence that the classic format may be enjoying a bit of a revival.

Last year’s Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and the eclectic steampunk jazz of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society are just two recent examples, and a triple bill at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night headlined by the venerable Count Basie Orchestra honored the form’s rich history while also showing where it stands in the present.

In a rumpled shirt and straw hat fit for a Brooklyn block party, downtown New York trumpeter Dave Douglas showed a different side to his always eclectic tastes, leading his band through fluid, expansive selections from “A Single Sky,” an album released last year that was Douglas’ first big band recording.

Arranged by keyboardist Bill McNeely, Douglas’ lyrical set departed from the usual big band sound with energetic flashes of Latin jazz and funk, gaining strength as it slowed to an atmospheric purr for the evocative “The Persistence of Memory.” With the bandstand bathed in red light, Douglas and crew took the Bowl to a dark, noirish place highlighted by a giggling, gurgling trombone solo by Ed Neumeister, whose deft work with a mute had his horn occasionally resembling Peter Frampton’s talk box.

Read the entire article here

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (live)	7:32	Dave Douglas
Fats (live)	3:36	Dave Douglas

[+] open in new window

Watch what's on

Sound Prints EPK
Spark of Being EPK
The View from Blue Mountain

[+] open in new window

News Archive

IMN - International Music Network