The Byres Road Big Band – Simon@65

‘Thanks for coming to this gig! I've been playing with the band for a bit over two years now, very much enjoying the challenge of trying to play jazz on my second instrument, the trombone. My warm thanks go to the band for the enthusiasm with which they have thrown themselves into the charts that I have been bringing in, and in particular for agreeing to play this gig as part of the celebrations around my 65th birthday. – Simon

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/jsimonvanderwalt/2125487

First set

The Opener

This is a very popular chart that more than one Glasgow band uses to, er… open the set! I've not been able to find out much more about it, other than it was arranged and composed by Carl Strommen and seems to date from 1972. (And, it's a completely different chart to the one called ‘The Opener’ written by Bill Holman for the Kenton band!)

Such Sweet Thunder

Composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, from the 1957 album of the same name: one of more than 750 (!) Ellington charts lovingly transcribed by arranger David Berger. On this one I get to use the ‘pixie and dixie’, which is a combination of plunger mute with a trumpet straight mute deep in the bell.

Teddy The Toad

The first of two charts tonight written by Neal Hefti for the outstanding ‘Atomic Mr Basie’ album of 1958. One programme note I have seen describes the opening trombone melody as ‘somewhat lumbering’ – not fair, actually very cool to play. This version of the chart is a bit of a puzzle to me, and I haven't quite got to the bottom of it yet. It is significantly different from the Basie recording, yet does appear to be an arrangement from Hefti’s own publishing arm. More research needed.

Wack Wack

One of two tracks tonight from the the 1967 live album ‘Big Swing Face’ by the Buddy Rich Big Band. I didn't know what this was based on: turns out to be a fairly obscure instrumental tune by a one-hit-wonder band from 1966. It’s one of the few tunes in the set that makes me wish I had a large bore trombone, so that I could really punch out those A naturals against the G in trombone 2 :) Arranged by Shorty Rogers.

Alfie

A promo song for the 1966 film ‘Alfie’, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and immortalised by Cilla Black. This is a 1970s stock chart by arranger Mike Lewis: it plays very nicely, particularly for the trombone section.

Roll ’Em

We have several scores in our pad by Mary Lou Williams: tonight we only have space for one of them. This was written for Benny Goodman in 1937, here in a transcription by our bass trombonist James Brady.

The Theeeeeeem – J Simon van der Walt

Every band needs a theme tune… maybe just not this one. A silly melody that doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind what key it is in. One day maybe I should finish the rest of the chart…

The Byres Road Suite – J Simon van der Walt

Is THIS cool??
Flappy Flappy Birds
Space Age Puppets and Masks

Two new pieces written specially for the BRBB, and one oldie from 1994.

‘Is THIS cool??’ starts with a horn riff that I wrote for a Chicago gogo-funk band from Edinburgh called DC Ellis, but the rest of it is entirely new. The funky pairing of unison alto sax and trombone in this tune is kind of obviously inspired by Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley. The title comes from a sketch from the 1994 comedy show ‘The Day Today’.

‘Flappy Flappy Birds’ is jazz waltz featuring Marian on baritone sax and Henry on trumpet, somewhat the manner of Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker. I wrote this mainly on the guitar, and the harmony is kind of… not that jazzy. It puts me in mind of Bacharachs’ ‘South American Getaway’ from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, although, apart from the time signature, it’s really not very much like that at all.

‘Space Age Puppets and Masks’ is built on a very simple AB tune I wrote for a collaboration with the Edinburgh Samba School in 1994. Once again, the big band version gave me a chance to redevelop this old material in new ways.

In a Mellow Tone

I’m aware of three classic versions of this tune: the original Duke Ellington version from 1940; my favourite, the arrangement by Frank Foster for the Count Basie band as immortalised on the live ‘Breakfast Dance and Barbecue’ recording from 1959; and this chart arranged by the great Oliver Nelson for the Buddy Rich band. A real sense of lineage here, I love the way Nelson has the trombones quote the opening of the original Cootie Williams trumpet solo from the Ellington recording.

Cute

The first of three tunes by Neil Hefti that we’re playing tonight, from the Basie Plays Hefti album of 1958. Like ’Teddy the Toad’, a bit different from the album version, but apparently from Hefti’s publisher. At any rate, a fun stop-time feature for our drummer Nemo closes the first set.

Interval

In The Mood

Ha! Fooled you. You thought you knew this corny old thing, but not like this! A version written by Jeff Tyzik for The Tonight Show big band under trumpeter Doc Severinsen.

Eager Beaver

An early hit written by Stan Kenton himself in 1944. This version is by the prolific trombonist/arranger Dave Wolpe, and modulates through – wait till I count – five different keys, including Cb major!

Monitor Theme

The second track tonight from the the 1967 live album ‘Big Swing Face’ by the Buddy Rich Big Band. This one took me town a bit of a rabbit hole! Turns out to be a variation on one of the theme tunes for ‘Monitor’, an NBC radio program broadcast fron 1955 to the mid seventies. (Lyrics include ‘Folks who get with it stay up to the minute with Mo--ni--tor’ :) Arranged by Bill Holman, and displaying hints of his signature contrapuntal approach, although less evident here than in the charts he wrote for the Kenton band.

It's Oh So Nice

We couldn’t finish the night without one chart written by Sammy Nestico: this from the 1968 album Basie Straight Ahead. I’ll be playing my own transcription of the wonderfully laid-back trombone solo by Grover Mitchell.

Oclupaca

This is such a great chart from Duke Ellington, again meticulously transcribed by David Berger as part of the Jazz at the Lincoln Center project. I’m not going to spoil this one by trying to write anything about it, except perhaps that it features the greatest use of the note E natural in the history of jazz.

Between Two Oceans – J Simon van der Walt

Good Hope
Copernicus
Ninety Mile Beach

A suite of three pieces, originally written in 1998 for Steve Kettley’s band ‘Odd Times’, now substantially revised and rescored for big band.

The first piece to be written back then was titled after my mother’s visit to Ninety Mile Beach in New Zealand, which is one of the places in the world where you can see two oceans at once. From the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa – I’ve been there – you can see both the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Copernicus is a crater on the moon lying between Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Tranquility, and Oceanus Procellarus, the Ocean of Storms.

All three pieces have been greatly expanded from the original small band versions, with new sections and material developed from the main themes.

Flight of the Foo Birds

I specially requested that the band play this classic Neil Hefti composition from The Atomic Mr Basie. We went to the lengths of getting an authentic version of this based the original band parts: there are a lot of by-ear transcriptions and arrangements of this tune floating around that are… not as good as the original.

Critical Mass

This was one of the first charts I played when I joined the band, and not one I had come across before. Great funk big band writing from trumpet player and educator Jeff Jarvis.