Progressive Jazz 2009
BY JOE LANG (Jersey Jazz, December 2009)
TERRY VOSBEIN is an accomplished composer in both the fields of jazz and classical music. He is also a music educator, currently teaching music composition at Washington and Lee University. He has had a particular fascination with the music played by the Stan Kenton Orchestra, particularly the arrangements that were in the Kenton book during the versions of the band that were labeled the Progressive Jazz Orchestra and the Innovations Orchestra. Two of the arrangers who contributed many of the charts to Kenton during this period were Pete Rugolo and Bob Graettinger. Vosbein spent three months of research in the Kenton archives at North Texas University research, and uncovered many arrangements by these and other arrangers that were never commercially recorded by Kenton, and, in some cases, may never have been performed by the band.
Progressive Jazz 2009 (Max Frank Music - 001) is taken from a January 2009 concert by the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra conducted by Vosbein, and presents seven of the unrecorded Kenton pieces, five by Rugolo and two by Graettinger, along with five original pieces by Vosbein plus his stunningly beautiful arrangement of “Johanna” from Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. This is a superb sampling of progressive big band jazz, wonderfully programmed by Vosbein, and executed impeccably by the KJO. Rugolo and Graettinger, particularly the latter, wrote arrangements that were somewhat out for most listeners’ tastes.
The pieces that Vosbein chose for inclusion on this program are all quite accessible, but still show a lot of the out-of-the-box thinking that made their arrangements so unique and special. The Rugolo charts are “Artistry in Gillespie,” an boppish ode to the trumpet master with just a hint of Latin influence, Debussy’s impressionistic “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Rhythms at Work,” a piece that presages some of the Rugolo selections on his 1950s Mercury albums, a lovely take on “Don’t Blame Me,” and “Hambeth,” a piece that sounds like it could fit into the score of a film drama. Graettinger is represented by “Cuban Pastorale,” a somewhat nervous view of that island that makes the title seem ironic, and “Walkin’ By the River,” about as straight forward an arrangement as one will find from Graettinger.
Vosbein’s original material perfectly complements the rest of the program. “Crows in Tuxedos” and “Jumping Monkey” are both playful pieces that would have been perfect additions to the Kenton book, as would the Latin hued “Ahora es el Tiempo,” the perfectly titled “Odin’s Dream,” and “The Real Princess,” the concert closer that serves as a nice punctuation mark for an impressive musical feast.
