Part 2 of a Thursday Jazz Double Header: The Brucker-Weisse-Canterbury (BWC) Jazz Orchestra at WAMC’s the Linda
The Brucker-Weisse-Canterbury Jazz Orchestra returns to WAMC’s The Linda (339 Central Ave., Albany) on Thursday, just hours after Melanie Chirignan’s MC*2 plays Jazz on Jay. And meanwhile, the Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars also play Thursday, at Skidmore’s Zankel Music Center.
With the BWC, first came the songs and arrangements, then came the band.
“Our band started off as a reading band,” reflected Brucker before BWC played WAMC’s a year ago.
“I was gifted hundreds of charts from Al Quaglieri Jr. that were his dad’s from the venerable Albany Jazz Workshop,” Brucker explained. The Workshop brought together the top area jazz luminaries of the 1960s including saxophonists Nick Brignola and Leo Russo, trumpeters Mike Canonico and Al Quaglieri Sr. (who also played piano), and others.
Organized and co-led by drummer Brucker, trumpeter Steve Weisse, and trumpeter/flugel horn player and arranger Dylan Canterbury, they began with open rehearsals in the clubhouse of the Schenectady Municipal Golf Course. Over the past three years, the big band has expanded both its its performance schedule into other area venues and its repertoire.
WAMC’s The Linda has become a favorite stage to play, and beyond the initial book from Quaglieri’s extensive library, “the book has grown to include original compositions and arrangements as well as other charts that span the stylistic gamut of jazz history,” said Brucker.
The BWC Jazz Orchestra in an earlier show. Photo Provided
The BWC Jazz Orchestra now plays music from Count Basie, Thad Jones, Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington and other giants of the jazz pantheon, plus such modern talents as Bob Mintzer (Yellowjackets) and Bill Cunliffe (recently seen at the Saratoga Jazz Festival with the Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars). “We also have young and seasoned arrangers in the band who offer original and fresh arrangements that we perform,” Brucker said.
Early on, the BWC book included:
- “When Sunny Gets Blue” (Fisher/Segal, arr. Al Quaglieri)
- “Bill’s Riff” (Jim Corigliano)
- “Keepin’ On” (Dylan Canterbury)
- “Just Friends” (Kenner/Lewis, arr. Elias Assimakopoulos)
- “The Song Is You” (Kern/Hammerstein, arr. Bob Florence)
- “Kansas City Shout” (Ernie Wilkins)
Dylan Canterbury updated on Thursday’s line-up. It includes substitutions due to scheduling complications – including COVID! – among these busy, in-demand players. Canterbury reported the BWC on Thursday comprises Jim Corigliano, Dalton Sargent, Awan Rashad, Kevin Barcomb, Kaitlyn Fay (also vocals) and Wally Johnson, saxophones; Steve Weisse, Jon Bronk, Vito Speranza, and Steve Horowitz, trumpets; Ken Olsen, Don Mikkelsen, Rick Rosoff, and Shaun Bazylewicz, trombones; David Gleason, piano; Dave Shoudy, bass; Cliff Brucker, drums; and Dylan Canterbury, flugelhorn, and conductor.
Canterbury also shared the set list:
“Mean What You Say” (Thad Jones)
“One Step at a Time” (Dylan Canterbury)
“Falling” (Wayne Hawkins, arr. Jim Corigliano)
Too Darn Hot (Cole Porter, arr. Buddy Bregman)
“I Thought About You” (Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer, arr. Jim Corigliano)
“Night and Day” (Cole Porter, arr. Kevin Carey)
“Mood Swing” (Jim Corigliano)
“Simone” (Frank Foster)
“Muttnik” (Quincy Jones)
“Day by Day” (Sammy Cahn, Axel Stordahl, and Paul Weston, arr. Jim Corigliano)
“Every Night at Seven” (Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane, arr. Jim Corigliano)
“The Next Phase” (Dylan Canterbury)
“Finishing Up” (Al Quaglieri, arr. Dylan Canterbury)
Hot tunes, by a hot band, on what’s likely to be a hot evening.
8 p.m. $20. 518-465-5233. www.thelinda.org
Hoke's Jukebox 