Customer Reviews

Be Bop Big Band

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are a jazz fan, if you appreciate the sound of a band comprised of some of the west coast's best players, if well-crafted, swinging arrangements are your cup of tea, if you are a trumpet player and want to feel totally inadequate, then you must get this CD! It is big band jazz as good as any you can hear. And the virtuousity of Carl Saunders is extraordinary! He possesses a beautiful sound, a very personal creative style, remarkable technical facility and a range that almost defies description! He can play lead, he solos imaginatively and I wouldn't be surprised if he can leap tall buildings in a single bound! The band members are the who's-who of west coast artists and they play like they play together all the time....which, of course, they do....in various settings. My highest personal recommendation on this recording!!

Trumpeter Carl Saunders has been a first-call player for West Coast big bands for many years, but he only started to record as a leader in the mid-1990s. This disc is his first crack at leading his own big band, & it is, as you'd expect, a superb disc. Saunders has stunning chops & imagination on the horn--he likes wide intervals & can hit high notes with a nice tone & pitch (rather than making them sound like sirens going off). But he's not a prima donna: in fact, the album is largely a tribute to the work of the late arranger/composer/trumpeter Herb Phillips: the album includes six of his charts, including the knockout opener "Compilation" (a brisk "I Got Rhythm" variant) and the lovely "An Apple for Christa" (a tribute to the ill-fated teacher/astronaut Christa McAuliffe). The rest of the charts are shared out among various hands--Ivan Lins, Bill Rogers, Jackson Stock, John Boice, Mike Barone--& they all sound excellent: always warm rather than blaring, & never settling for slick riffing or excessive cleverness (though perhaps the multiple key-changes on "I'm All for You" are pushing it...). Saunders doesn't hog the limelight--in fact, on a few tunes he doesn't solo at all (Johnny Mandel's "Emily" is a trombone feature for Andy Martin, for instance). Pianist Christian Jacob sounds especially strong on his two features; my only quibble would be that the usually reliable alto saxophonist Lanny Morgan seems rather one-dimensional here, relying on the same formulaic Bird lick over & over again. But otherwise this is a very fine disc, recommended to fans of mainstream big-band music or to anyone looking for some first-rate trumpet.

Carl Saunders has gathered together the leading West Coast musicians and arrangers and recording technicians...AT THE PEAK OF THEIR POWERS...and created what will surely be a landmark "Big Band" recording. If you like flawless musicianship, this one's for you!

Carl Saunders did not pioneer soloing from a lead trumpet point of view: Marvin Stamm, Doc, Maynard, Shew: so many have pulled it off that it's not surprising to hear it anymore. Many lead charts written for bands now have chord progressions right there in the 1st chair a la Gordon Goodwin. But when a set of jazz chops like Carl's meets lead chops like Carl's, well, you have me stumped for words. "Spectacular" doesn't quite cut it; he doesn't blow the house down. "Out of sight" isn't right either; Carl stays pretty much within the boundaries of the chords. It's really what he does with all those 12 notes.

"Intelligent, technically confident and preternaturally clever with a Mariah Carey range that only quits once he leaves the building, and even then I'd bet he pops high 'A's' in his sleep." I'll leave it at that. Why more folks don't have this guy on the top of their CD pile is nuts. Listen and learn. The Arban Cowboy, indeed!

Endearingly known to his friends as the Arban Cowboy, Carl is the greatest! I have all his CD's and look for him on other artists' recordings as well. He's ALWAYS the one to check out. Not to be overlooked - ever.