Customer Reviews

Temptation

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"Temptation" is an first class Big Band CD! Ladd McIntosh demonstrates on this CD that he is one of America's best big band arrangers. Ladd's charts on these 'standard' songs are highly original and the band's playing is top notch. Ladd's Los Angeles Big Band includes many of the very best musicians in L.A. The band is beautifully recorded and the ensemble playing is very tight. Check out Ladd's great arrangement of "Under My Skin" (amazing sax section writing), clever variations on "Savoy", and hard hitting Latin grooves on "Temptation" and "Dansero". Solo highlights include: Jon Crosse's beautiful clarinet feature on "Ill Wind" (originally written for Eddie Daniels), Kurt McGetterick's Bari feature on "I Got It Bad", Fred Seldon's alto catching fire on "Dansero", the outrageous playing of trombonist Eric Jorgensen, and wonderful trumpet solos by Bob Summers, Sal Cracchiolo, and Stan Watkins. Dick Weller is fantastic on drums throughout. Highly recommended!

I first met Ladd McIntosh quite casually when he was teaching at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. He ran the college jazz program there. This was about 35-40 years ago, I guess! He generated a lot of energy, and his jazz ensemble charts were terrific. They did a lot of off-campus things, shall we say, and Ladd's band was a genuine rumpus out of Utah.

I recently thought about him and wondered what had happened to him, and started looking. Simultaneously, I thought of his peer up in Seattle at the Cornish School, Marius "Butch" Nordall, who also was writing simply wonderful, original jazz charts at the same time (early '70s).

I couldn't find recordings of Butch's big band things--although "big band" doesn't feel like the right term because his music was almost always multifarious in the complexity of its orchestration--but, if you're interested in hearing him with his trio more recently, you can find examples on Amazon. I bought one, and it was a very pleasant surprise!

So, I searched for Ladd's music, if I could find it, and bingo. Several CDs are available. This one, "Temptation" is not recent, but it is younger than 35!

The band on the CD is based in Los Angeles, and it is a good, solid band. Ladd's charts, arrangements of standards, are excellently scored. Nothing wildly original here, but it's all quite well done. I was remembering Ladd's older charts that were rather free-flowing expeditions into desert suites or rooted in Native American themes, but none of that appears here. I think some of the other CDs available (of three or four I found) are of the type I'm remembering. Ladd had quirky sense of humor.

McIntosh is a gifted jazz composer-arranger. If you like big bands, check this release out! The charts are good, the band is tight, the soloing is fine ... and it is a little old-fashioned, or maybe a dry martini.