Singer Charlotte Carruthers Excels In Her Big-Band Debut
Spokane Jazz Orchestra Saturday, March 16, at The Met
Until Saturday night, Charlotte Carruthers had never sung in front of a big band.
“I want you to know I’m fulfilling a lifetime dream,” she told the near-capacity Met crowd.
Carruthers should make a habit of it.
Filling the headliner’s slot at the Spokane Jazz Orchestra’s annual All Stars Concert and backed by her father, pianist Arnie Carruthers, Charlotte Carruthers made the most of her big chance.
Maybe it’s the influence of growing up in a family where Duke Ellington and Count Basie are standard turntable fare, but she had no problem figuring out what to do with all those instruments behind her.
Her bravado, three-song set - “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues” and “New York, New York” - capped off a brilliant show marred only by the absence of trombone allstar Nat Wickham, who had been called away by a family emergency.
In an evening of highlights, one other stood above the others: tenor saxophonist Greg Yasinitsky’s rendition of Charles Mingus’ “Ask Me Now.” Yasinitsky’s angular, edgy solo played nicely off a trademark Mingus trombone chart, then cranked into a muscular double-time section as the big band built to a crashing climax behind him.
Yasinitsky finished off the piece with a hard-edged solo sans band.
SJO tenor star Gary Edighoffer then joined Yasinitsky for a cutting contest on “There Will Never Be Another You,” with Edighoffer’s fluid, rushing solo providing a tasty contrast to Yasinitsky’s aggressive style.
Brent Edstrom was his usual impeccable - and inventive - self on three tunes early on. Dave Stultz stepped forward with two strong trombone solos. And drummer Scott Jones shone on a forgettable Buddy Rich piece from the ‘60s called “Channel One Suite.”
The vocal quartet Top Flite chimed in with a set of close-harmony vocalizing highlighted by bad humor and lovely clarinet work from Chris Moyer. Their set provided music director Dan Keberle with his only chance for a solo, a lovely flugelhorn turn on “Almost Like Being in Love.”
The Carruthers clan wrapped up the evening, led off by Arnie’s tribute to Thelonius Monk, “To Monk With Love,” and Monk’s own eccentric “Rhythm-A-Ning.”
Then Charlotte sang the evening’s finale, her handsome alto finding the spaces in the big band arrangements and soaring above it in moments of real beauty.
Some fine singers have worked with the SJO, but she could be the best.
, DataTimes