Pure jazz pours from sum of many solos

By TOM SCHERBERGER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 4, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- When you play in a band as rich in talent as the 16-piece Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, you've got to grab any opportunity to stand up and soar.

Alto sax player Ted Nash sensed his moment Tuesday night during a sweet blues tune called I Left My Baby. He stood up in the front row ready to solo, only to find trumpeter and band leader Wynton Marsalis standing in the back row with the same idea.

No problem. With a smile and a nod, Marsalis cut his solo short and turned it over to Nash. The two then delivered the kind of spontaneous cutting contest that defines jazz -- a little bit of instant art, composed on the spot.

It's the kind of moment you don't always find in the restrained setting of an orchestra, but the near-sellout crowd at the Mahaffey Theater on Tuesday night experienced quite a few.

Buster Cooper, for example.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra veteran and former LCJO member, who now has a regular weekend gig at the Garden restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg, was called out on stage by Marsalis, along with bassist John Lamb, another Ellington veteran and local resident. With the band members urging him on, Cooper delivered a delightful, crowd-pleasing solo on a borrowed trombone during an unplanned C Note Blues, an Ellington tune Marsalis called "the most fundamental blues ever written."

Then there was the moment baritone-bass vocalist Milt Grayson sang his first words: The audience let out an audible moan at his deep, silken voice. On such tunes as Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, Love You Madly and Jelly Jelly (a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton), Grayson seduced the responsive crowd with a voice that seemed to resonate from another time.

[Times photo: Pam Royal] Wynton Marsalis plays solo during a performance of Blues Train.

Of course, that was the idea -- to play the music of the swing era, with a modern jazz sensibility and a little dancing.

"We thought we were going to be dancing tonight," Marsalis said at the beginning. "If you feel like dancing in the aisle or something, don't be afraid."

Unfortunately, no one took him up on the offer. Other stops on the band's "For Dancers Only" tour featured dance floors. The Mahaffey didn't have room, so the only dancing was on stage, courtesy of professional swing champs Janice Wilson and Paolo Lanna.

Still, it was a good night for listening.

The orchestra ran through some swing classics, from the opening Take the A Train, to Morton's King Porter Stomp (made famous by Benny Goodman), to Stompin' at the Savoy and Ellington's Perdido, which featured Marsalis' most extensive solo.

Marsalis spent most of the night in the back row with the trumpet section, as if to say this is not the Wynton Marsalis Orchestra. He managed to spotlight every band member. Some of the evening's highlights were original compositions by orchestra members Wycliffe Gordon, Rodney Whitaker and Ron Westray. Whitaker's Darriene Niles was a gorgeous, slow-tempo tune that could have been a theme from a 1940s Hollywood movie.

The orchestra showed swing is no joke. And a near-capacity crowd turning out on a Tuesday night proves there's still hope for this American art form at the start of the 21st century. Let's hope concert promoters are paying attention because it's looking like a jazz drought between now and October's Clearwater Jazz Holiday.

-- Tom Scherberger can be reached at (813) 226-3371 or scherberger@sptimes.com