The Flying Horse Big Band's Good News!

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Greg Yasinitsky's YAZZ Band

Here's another big band jazz album from an academic, this time from the Pacific Northwest--my old stomping grounds. Saxophonist Greg Yasinitsky teaches composition, jazz studies and the finer points of his musical instrument at Washington State University. As with most of these professors in jazz studies programs across the United States, Yasinitsky has one of those long resumes where he's played with everybody worth playing with--Randy Brecker, Lou Rawls, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Louie Bellson, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, Mel Torme and Clark Terry. In other words, he's no journeyman. His new album, YAZZ Band, is strictly big band jazz, which always seems like a natural choice for musicians who are mentoring the next generation of young musicians.

As you might imagine, this is a very professional affair with lots of superb featured soloists such as drummers David Jarvis and Dan Bukvich, trumpeter Vern Sielert, flugelhorn player John Harbaugh and many more. What's intriguing is this beautiful recording was captured right in the studios at WSU, which seems to underline that premise I've been pushing all year--that college jazz programs are doing more than their share to keep jazz alive in the United States. This recording, like many others of its kind, sounds just as dynamic and clean and realistic as anything that might have been laid down at a professional studio with some guy at the board who's been doing the same thing for several decades. The line between "Jazz Studies" and "Jazz in the Real World" is getting mighty blurry.

It makes sense that these are original Yasinitsky compositions since he teaches the subject at WSU, and he does have a classic style that melds a nostalgic feel from the post-war era with a big, dynamic sound that's suited for modern big band audiences. Yasinitsky leads the band much of the way while he's blowing his sax, and he has a sultry delivery that reinforces that old-fashioned yet sexy mood. There's only a few times that Yasinitsky steps back and lets someone else take the wheel, and that someone is usually pianist Brian Ward. Ward shares Yasinitsky's taste for sweeping romantic notions, and his lyrical phrasing digs deep into the beating heart of songs such as "New York Confidential" and "Sideways."

Many of Yasinitsky's compositions were commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the British Columbia Interior Jazz Festival. Most of the musicians in the YAZZ Band are also from the Pacific Northwest. I'd like to say that the YAZZ Band plays in the traditional style of PNW jazz, but as far as I know there is no such thing. What this geography reveals is that big band jazz is experiencing quite a lot of exposure these days, whether the musicians are from the University of North Texas, the University of South Florida or Washington State University. It's American music, played all over the world, and young people are still signing up in droves to learn it and play it--and that's exciting.

Jeff Rupert & Richard Drexler's R&D

Example #2,776 of how not to judge an album by its cover--I give you saxophonist Jeff Rupert and pianist Richard Drexler's R&D. Maybe it's Drexler's long ZZ Top-style beard, or the dark, smoky black and white photo on the cover, but when I first looked at this CD I thought one thing, and that's blues. You know, rough-and-tumble jazz with an edge, with maybe an all-electric ensemble that included one or more guitar players who really knows how to shred, within the parameters of jazz of course. What I didn't expect was this thoughtful, somewhat introspective live album, recorded at the Timucua Arts White House back in 2015. It's just the two men, veterans in the jazz world, playing a handful of standards with uncommon chemistry. It's an intimate performance, with a small but enthusiastic audience present, and it's one of those crystalline moments in jazz that's not just about a piano and a tenor saxophone. It's about the men behind the instruments and how they interact with each other and the rest of the world.

This is one of those splendid live performances that's so much more than tone. These two men have been playing together since the 1980s, and they are completely comfortable in each other's company. Both have played with the greats--Rupert has worked with Maynard Ferguson, Bob Berg and Kenny Drew Jr., and Drexler has played with Mose Allyson, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Diahann Carroll, Vic Damone, Amy Grant and Al Jarreau. Rupert's better known as the founder of Flying Horse records, and director of the Flying Horse Band from the University of Central Florida. I've reviewed two of their albums: Big Man on Campus and The Bat Swings!. Drexler is also part of the faculty at UCF.

It's a pleasure to hear these two musicians apart from their usual big band surroundings. This is the type of recording I usually hear from the likes of 2L Recordings, that deep sense of being able to walk among these two performers and hear their human presences deliver this wonderful music. Rupert has a soft, breathy way with his sax, full of the personal mechanisms that are usually associated with greats such as Stan Getz. Drexler's piano is lush and emotive, and his reach across the keys is impressive in its agility. They share their space with an enormous amount of vivaciousness, always sensitive to what the other is feeling. In other words, this is an ideal recording for gauging that aforementioned chemistry, that magic that only happens between old friends.

Was I disappointed that this album was so different than what I expected? No, I was delighted. I'm listening to this on a cold, rainy day, that time of the year when we can finally say that summer is gone and now we can look forward to another deep winter in Western New York. This is yet another wonderful and simple recording that begs you to move closer and dig around, to bask in the closeness and yes, the love these two performers have for each other, the music and the audience.

The Flying Horse Big Band's The Bat Swings!

The bat swings. Get it? I didn't, at first. This new release has been sitting on the review pile for a few weeks now, its bright yellow cover standing out from others. It took me forever to give it a listen, though. I've been immersed in the world of big band jazz for several weeks now, and this one was postponed for a bit for a couple of reasons--most notably because I just reviewed the Flying Horse Big Band's Big Man on Campus not too long ago and for one cabbage-headed reason or another that was enough to not worry about it for now.

I'm a little sorry that I did wait, because The Bat Swings is exactly what I needed--big band jazz that takes a thoroughly novel idea and runs with it. This is completely different from all those other releases, the ones that feature a mix of standards and originals done the high-impact big band way. This CD, however, is more than the sherbet between the courses. It's a wild and welcome tangent, a big band treatment of all the incidental music from the Batman television series from the '60s. Doesn't that sound like a great idea? That's because it is since the original music was composed by none other than the great Nelson Riddle, a man who knows a little bit about big bands.

The Flying Horse Band is part of the jazz program at the University of Central Florida and directed by Jeff Rupert. This is relevant because I've been working on that University of North Texas project (I promise I won't mention that again until I'm finished, since it seems to be a form of procrastination to admit I'm still working on it), and I'm starting to compare these college programs to their professional counterparts and trying to find subtle differences. With the last three big band jazz releases I've reviewed right here in this blog, I've felt that the pros sound like they have more composure because they have a little more experience under their collective belt and perhaps there isn't the pressure, a la Whiplash, to perform under an incredible amount of pressure. After a while, instinct kicks in and you just play. But this release sets that idea on its ear since FHBB has that same level of ease and perfection.

Most of all, it's surprising how much this novelty succeeds by not surrendering itself to those incredibly familiar Caped Crusader themes. The improvisations and solos keep the kitsch at a comfortable level, especially since they're performed by such talented musicians as trumpeter Justin Diaz, pianist Mudel Honore and guitarist Ryan Waszmer, among others. For fans of the TV show, however, the music is punctuated just enough with those big horn blasts that bat-signal the transition between scenes, or those climactic pows and zaps. If it sounds like great fun, it is, and it's the type of release that pumps energy and originality in a jazz genre that's very much focused on tradition.

Flying Horse Big Band's Big Man on Campus on CD

The Flying Horse Big Band is a juggernaut from the University of Central Florida, a large ensemble of talented musicians who have released eight albums on their own label. This one, Big Man on Campus, pays homage to composer Harry Allen and includes both his classic compositions and arrangements, custom-tailored for Flying Horse. That's a fairly dry description of this album, but this release is such a classy and professional affair that it's hard to stray from a reverential tone. The twenty performers that share this stage are the epitome of poise, and they create music that is preternaturally perfect--for jazz, that is.

Big bands aren't necessarily known for passion and improvisation and spontaneity--anyone who has seen Whiplash knows this all too well. (For a more humorous and frightening take, search out videos of Buddy Rich dressing down members of his band.) But job #1 for a big band should be working as one big well-oiled machine. Flying Horse is that and more, saxes and trombones and trumpets all executing with perfect precision, as well as a rhythm section with organs, electric bass and guitars that keep the proceedings light and loose, but in moderation. At the center of these colorful performances is Harry Allen himself, having an extraordinary amount of fun with his tenor sax.

What else can you say about a classy enterprise like this? If you prefer hearing mysterious sonic dispatches from the edges of the frontier, you might have to dig deeper than most to find the hidden treasure in this recording. I, for instance, find a great deal of joy in the breathy sounds of Harry's sax. Here he reminds me of Stan Getz at his most relaxed, ready to swing.

Other than that, Big Man on Campus is a rarity, a modern big band recording delivered with love, dedication and talent beyond reproach...in 2017.