As excited as audience members were to hear the Brown Jazz Band perform jazz classics during its Friday night concert, a performance by Johnny Vidacovich - a New Orleans-based drummer who has played with jazz greats like Charlie Miller and John Scofield - provided the main draw. The performance, which filled Grant Recital Hall, was the eighth annual concert in memory of Daniel Milano '93.
The first half of the concert was repertoire jazz, a rare kind of performance for the Brown Jazz Band. A fairly modern concept, repertoire jazz strives to exactly reproduce great jazz performances of the past by mimicking recordings of them. This may seem antithetical to the improvisation that is crucial to jazz, but the idea is that these classic recordings have taken on a life of their own and that replicating the performance is a way of honoring them. The jazz band focused on a few Duke Ellington pieces recorded mostly from the years 1939 to 1942.
With steady drums and a smooth walking bass, the band waltzed through "It Could Happen to You" and "Take the 'A' Train." The saxophones called, the trumpets responded and the clear voice of Herald Sports Photo Editor Kori Schulman '08 sailed into the night. "Concerto for Cootie" featured a trumpet solo by Josh Waitzman '07, for which he used a plunger mute that gave his solo a grainy sound resembling records played on a phonograph.
"Clothed Woman," described by Senior Lecturer in Music and Band Director Matthew McGarrell as "an enigmatic piece," featured David Frisof '09 on the piano playing a note-for-note transcription of Ellington's recording. At first, Frisof was joined only by soft accompaniment from the brass section, but as the piano really got rolling, the drums and bass joined in and the song proceeded to careen around the band, focusing on each different instrument group and coming back to Frisof at the piano.
After a rather abrupt ending, the band launched into "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," a song which it took in a bluesy direction, using only the rhythm section, the strong voice of Justin Revelle '07 and a trumpet solo by Matt Leder. "Raincheck" rounded out the first half of the performance with Amy Goins '07 playing the sharpest trombone solo of the night.
After a brief intermission, the Vidacovich half of the concert began. Warming up with Miles Davis' "Nardis," Vidacovich, whom McGarrell described as "among the best drummers in the world," exhibited his energetic style of play. With quick, sharp movements, Vidacovich - a tall, wiry man who looks more like a marathon runner than a drummer - zipped through the song in an effortless manner, all available appendages constantly on the move.
"Gunslinging Bird," more of a jam than the previous song, featured solos alternating among trombones, saxophones, trumpets and bass, building in strength to climax at Vidacovich's drum solo, an incredible performance that proved a drum solo is not always the boring part of a song.
"Come Sunday," a beautiful song from Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige," followed, serving as a reprieve both for the audience and for Vidacovich himself, as Jay Levin '08 took back the drums.
Before long, the song was over, and Vidacovich returned. McGarrell was so excited about "Louisiana Be-Bop" that he skipped over the next song in the program and had to go back for it later. "Louisiana Be-bop," a Les Hooper tune, catered to the Vidacovich brand of New Orleans funk. The electric bass was brought out, and Vidacovich stayed true to his promise to "funk it up."
The band then backed up to play "Caravan," a song arranged and performed by the rhythm section. Perhaps because they don't have to breathe so hard to do what they do, Frisof on piano, Andrew Lim '08 on bass and Peter Boyer '09 on guitar made keeping up with Vidacovich seem easy.
After Charles Mingus' "Boogie Stop Shuffle," the band took their bows, and McGarrell invited everyone who had brought an instrument to join them in Fulton Rehearsal Hall for a jam session with Vidacovich. Members of the band were really able to show off their skills and have fun at the same time - taking cues from each other, improvising, soloing, building up speed and slowing back down, refusing to let the night end.
