Trumpeter Leads Tribute To Jazz Great
Spokane Jazz Orchestra Saturday, March 22, The Met
A sellout crowd cheered trumpeter Gary Guthman and the Spokane Jazz Orchestra Saturday night as the SJO presented its “Tribute to Harry James.”
Few big-band leaders were more successful than James. His warm, bright sound was a cornerstone of the war years, and his romantic hits foreshadowed the Baby Boom.
His first No. 1 smash, “You Made Me Love You,” broke in 1941 and unleashed a torrent of hits, including “I Cried For You,” “I Had the Craziest Dream,” “I’ve Heard That Song Before” and “I’ll Get By.”
Saturday night, trumpeter Guthman led the SJO through a score of authentic James’ charts, including Frank Sinatra’s first major recording, “All Or Nothing At All.” It was James who discovered Sinatra singing in a Hoboken, N.J., nightclub.
Looking sleekly authentic in white suit and pencil-thin mustache, and backed by the Brent Edstrom’s twinkling piano, Guthman kept up a steady stream of between-song patter, regaling the crowd with James lore.
Typically, he introduced the theme on his coronet, rejoined for a solo, then took the band out in one of those rousing, high-register trumpet squalls that were a calling card of the James sound.
Most impressive was Guthman’s command of James’s distinctive style. His mastery of James’s brilliant tone and his vocabulary of slurs and silvery runs infused Guthman’s playing with authenticity.
Helen Forrest, James’s longtime vocalist, spoke of the trumpeter’s “Jewish phrasing,” which seems an odd reference on first blush but is completely apt. James’s playing had the singing qualities of the human voice, and the fertile tangle of Yiddish conversation lent his playing warmth, strength and good humor.
Guthman had that down cold, too.
Some time ago Guthman discovered a young Canadian vocalist, Dianne Donovan, whose rich alto is the perfect vehicle for Helen Forrest’s pieces. She joined Guthman and the SJO for a three-song set including the jaunty swing tune, “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” and “It’s Been A Long, Long Time,” with its unforgettably catchy refrain.
Saturday was Donovan’s birthday, and Guthman surprised her with roses and a chorus of “Happy Birthday” from the SJO.
To open, the SJO played a set of standards, including “All of Me,” “Misty” and a knockout version of Duke Ellington’s “I Got it Bad (and That Ain’t Good)” arranged by SJO pianist Brent Edstrom. The vocal quartet Top Flite showed off lovely harmonies and fine falsetto work from Shawn Wright and Rick Richard.
The final concert in the 1996-97 season, “A Tribute to Count Basie,” on May 10 will feature former Basie tenor player and arranger Frank Wess.
, DataTimes