Doug Lawrence & His Orchestra: Big Band Swing

To be honest, there's a lot of Chicago represented here, but not much New York, as at least fourteen of the album's eighteen selections definitely were recorded by the Midwest ensemble (three others, on which Lawrence is the lone soloist, are open to debate—I'd guess Chicago, as Chris Flory's rhythm guitar from the NYC group is either absent or inaudible—while Claudette Sierra, listed as vocalist with the East Coast orchestra, is heard on Ellington's "I Got It Bad ). The other vocals, three in all, are by Chicago's Jennifer Shelton (both Sierra and Shelton, by the way, are quite good). Shelton shines on another Ellington favorite, "I'm Beginning to See the Light, Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler's "When the Sun Comes Out and Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn's "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Year).

The numbers on which Lawrence has center stage to himself include the standard "It Never Entered My Mind, Mikos Hadjidakis' theme from the film "Never On Sunday and Bob Ojeda's lively "Swingin' at the Orchid. Besides Lawrence's showpieces, the wonderful trumpeter Art Davis, one of Chicago's best-kept secrets, is featured on "The Nearness of You and Benny Carter's "Meetin' Time, trombonist Tom Garling on Horace Silver's "Doodlin', trombonist Scott Bentall on Burt Bacharach/Hal David's theme from "Alfie. Other strapping solos are delivered courtesy of trumpeters Ojeda, Tito Carillo and Scott Wagstaff, alto Jerry DiMuzio and pianist John Campbell, all from the Chicago orchestra.

Lawrence opens with another Benny Carter classic, "Jackson County Jubilee, and closes with Sammy Nestico's ambling, Basie-like "Queen Bee. Other head-turners, besides those already mentioned, include Thad Jones' "Don't Get Sassy and the standards "Moon River, "Come Fly with Me, "Teach Me Tonight and "There'll Be Some Changes Made. To give you an idea of how long it takes some of these big band enterprises to get off the ground, the NYC orchestra was recorded in April of '99, the Chicago ensemble in March of 2000. Worth waiting for? Yes (followed immediately by mandatory exclamation point). Singular or plural, New York and/or Chicago, Lawrence's orchestra knows how to swing and does so consistently.

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