Doug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza

Some reviewers have been known to complain that contemporary big bands can do most anything but swing. Like all generalizations, there is some merit to the observation. But, like all generalizations, the occasional exception falsifies it. Looking for a big band that pushes all the right buttons? Look no further. Doug MacDonald's "desert jazz" band is an extremely good one. While it might be difficult to make claims about the novelty of what is on offer, the band is tight, it cooks, the solos are excellent, and the whole production can restore one's faith in "seventeen people at work," to update Duke Ellington's characterization.

"Toluca Lake Jazz" is pretty much "Cherokee," with Paul Kreibich and Chuck Berghofer in the cockpit, where they keep affairs moving throughout. And some lead alto playing here and elsewhere, for sure! If you are an aficionado of twelve-bar blues, "Luces Azules" is going to do the trick, with an especially tasty trumpet solo by the much-lamented Carl Saunders. And how nice to hear an old school stop-time trombone solo by Glen Berger. Berghofer plays a nice cruising solo. A listener thinks Doug McDonald, aside from just playing awfully well throughout, must have spent some time absorbing Bill Holman, Bill Potts, and the other who's who of Buddy Rich's 1960s' arrangers, because the phrasing and voicing of the reed section are surely evocative of them. "Desert Jazz" spotlights not only McDonald's playing, but a fine trumpet section with Dan Fornero and Mike Campagna on split lead. Aaron Janik on trumpet plays a nice Don Fagerquist-inflected solo.

If a listener spends time on fine section work, arrangements, lead players, and, a bit grudgingly, soloists, these are signs of a musician's big band. The star system is less in evidence than the ensemble work, but then, get a nice blend of both, as on "De Ha." A swinging standard? "But Not For Me" square on top of the beat.

If shouting big bands is the itch you need to scratch, Big Band Extravaganza should do nicely. As Glenn Miller famously said, something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. All played with verve, taste, and superb musicianship.