UW’s Modern Jazz Contingent & The Jim Knapp Orchestra

Monday’s wonderful performance in Meany Hall was touted as the Studio Jazz En-semble. While this is in no way misleading, a more befitting moniker would have been “Ar-ranging 101.” Opening with the school of music’s very own Modern Jazz Contingent (which was, in fact, very modern) and finishing with the Jim Knapp orchestra, the perhaps quarter-full Meany was treated to some of the best arranging I’ve heard in ages. Both groups, while different in style and approach, both benefited from intelligent, lyrical and fascinating voic-ings and arrangements.

To be honest, I was surprised and enormously impressed by the quality of the Mod-ern Jazz Contingent, the MJC. (Not to be confused with MJQ, the Modern Jazz Quartet, which, incidentally, shares little with the stylistic choices chosen by the MJC). Distinctly modern, the MJC laid heavy grooves over which the tight and clean horn voicings buoyed and bounced along majestically. Opening with a smooth, laid back tune entitled “Ode to the Doo Da Day” the MJC voiced their modus operandi forthright, appealing to little a priori. From there they moved into a piece written by professor Marc Seales which was the highlight of their performance. Starting with a thick groove provided by the drummer and bassist, a sinu-ous melody was laid out by Ms. Holly Hess on clarinet, from which was built, through the use of contrapuntal melodies, a veritable wall of sound which eventually fell apart back into a steady groove. From there, Scott Morning picked up the soloist duties with a laconic, dis-tilled style trumpet solo reminiscent of the later work of Miles Davis, not only in choice of melody, but in tone of instrument. Morning finished, and the bass and drums gave way to Josh Alexander on piano, whom after an extended solo improvisation, segued into a typical twelve-bar blues and handed the solo over to a truly virtuosic guitar improvisation that ecli-psed practically the entire number. What distinguished it from the rest of the piece was the incredible use of rubato and conversation between the rhythm section and the guitarist, ef-fectively doubling the tempo to build an enormous amount of energy, and draw the audience in like no other solo heard in the entire set. The twelve-bar form carried the piece to comple-tion, however it should be noted that although the title was “The Blues,” the first hint of blues structure occurred at about seven minutes into the piece, an interesting artistic move on the part of professor Seales.

MJC performed three more songs before handing the stage to Jim Knapp: a languid, modern (to the point of smooth), and intensely melodic tune entitled “Oh-deetrip” which included a fine solo by Seales; a selection named “Vignette,” written by alto-saxophone player Art Brown which featured a concurrently intense but slow-moving and sweeping mel-ody and a wonderful call and response session between Brown on alto and Seales on piano, providing a light, buoyant solo which provided needed contrast b to the heavy melody. MJC finished with an almost jazz-fusion piece arranged by the drummer Tarik Abouzied entitled “Jazz Crimes” whose funky, almost hip-hop in nature rhythms, forged a solid foundation for the contrapuntal melodies layered by the horn players. As enjoyably west-coast and modern sounding as MJC was, the real gem of the evening was yet to come.

Jim Knapp, who, unbeknownst to me, developed the jazz program at the Cornish College of the Arts and holds many other accolades and distinctions, is a wonderful arranger with a clear sense of style (although he wears his influences on his jacket sleeve) and obvious and profound experience. Knapp conducted his thirteen-piece orchestra (featuring associate professor Vern Sielert) exquisitely and professionally, creating some of the finest jazz I’ve heard live in a long time. Knapp opened his set modestly with a number called “Here She Is” which had a straight-ahead rhythm section and trumpet and alto-saxophone solos. From there he moved the band into a song called “The Old World” where his impressionistic, Gil Evans style really shown through. “The Old World” unfolded slowly and spectrally, with heavy arrangement and Evans-like coloring. Mark Taylor was featured on soprano.

The third song in the set had upbeat and interesting African rhythms, and was enti-tled “Kumasi” (spelling?). The highlight of this tune was really the brilliant coloring by the drummer, Adam Kessler, who fluidly kept time and painted underneath, aside and some-times above, the horn soloists. The fourth number played was a beautiful arrangement of Jimmy Rolles’ “The Peacocks” which effortlessly came across in mesmerizingly beautiful, impressionistic lines that seemed to beckon and call and ask the audience what’s next? to which it was impossible to answer. Gil Evans’ influence was especially apparent in the signi-fication of the end of a solo, where a huge swell would engulf the listener and release him into the hands of the next soloist. Coming down from “The Peacocks,” Knapp moved into a fairly typical samba called “Samba Brava” which was uneventful and seemingly listless, un-derstandably so considering what it proceeded and, in fact, what it preceded.

The sixth number unequivocally stole the show. Entitled “Wild, Wild, West,” it be-gan simply with a deep, dark melody sung out by Tom Varner, the French horn player, which moved into a wonderful, comical improvisation full of squeaks, bops and deep, flatu-lently-sounding urps. Meanwhile, tacitly and unassumingly, the bassist and drummer both began to improvise and Jim Knapp left his position in front of the band to the side of the stage to listen, remove his direction and let the creativity flow. Soon, with bass, drums and French horn deep in improvisation, most sense of structure was lost and the improvisations moved between players. From French horn to baritone to alto to tenor to alternate tenor and finally ending with an incredible, virtuosic bass solo Phil Sparks, that climaxed in use of the bow, and all the while the drummer keeping time and, taking a lesson from the Jack De-Johnette school, providing vivid color to the music. It was unbelievable in the level of con-versation occurring on stage, the horns talking to the bassist talking to the drummer talking back to the horns, it was all enjoyably miscible and it coalesced into an incredible perform-ance that will not be soon forgotten.

All in all, both bands immensely impressed, and provided first-rate entertainment for the evening. Although the Modern Jazz Contingent played to a different style than Jim Knapp, it was apparent who the more experienced of the two arrangers were. Knapp con-ducted with grace and élan that was highly impressionistic, pensive, beautiful and full of sur-prises, while MJC was largely arranged by students and was modern, cool and found influ-ence in rock (especially the rhythm section) and west-coast recordings. It would be hard for one not to be appreciative for not only the great music heard Monday, but for the valuable lesson in arranging given by Jim Knapp.