September 7, 2024 – Hoke's Jukebox

Tim Olsen Big Band at A Place for Jazz, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024

The Tim Olsen Big Band crowded the symphony-sized stage of SUNY Schenectady’s Carl B. Taylor Auditorium Friday to kick off the new A Place for Jazz season. Largest ensemble in the five-show fall season, the 18-piece juggernaut made a glorious noise with precise section playing and fiery free-flowing solos – all focused through leader Tim Olsen’s clear artistic vision.

The Tim Olsen Big Band

A Union College Professor of Music, Olsen honored jazz tradition in two ways. His straight-ahead approach to classic tunes felt distinctly non-academic Friday; it swung, it had soul. More often, though, he mutated classic-tune elements into new forms, sometimes with echoes of the originals. So the two-set 18-tune concert mixed resonance with exploration, just as his new “Obsidian” album collected ten Olsen originals from as far back as 1985 and as recent as last year while the six covers dated from the 1930s.

Tim Olsen, piano

Olsen conducted from center stage or the piano, stage right among with the rhythm section, while the horns played in rows, stage left: four trumpets at the rear, four trombones (including Dan Cordell’s bass trombone) in the center and five reeds up front, Tom Gerbino mainly playing baritone or bass clarinet, everybody else wielding flutes, clarinets, altos or tenors.

“Winter Journey” comprised all fresh ingredients to start, Eric Walentowicz’s tenor in the main solo slot, Olsen keying the coda at the piano; while “Portnoy’s Complaint” (not about Philip Roth’s groundbreaking novel, instead paying tribute to a St. Louis-based colleague) formed around “So What” as its frame or launching pad. Steve Lambert soloed well here, but drummer Pete Sweeney seemed busier, playing brushes in one measure, sticks in the next, then back to brushes.

“Dutch Treat” sped things up some, appropriately as it told a chapter of family history about Honda minivans, and gave Sweeney, bassist Lou Smaldone and percussionist Brian Malick – EVERY band should employ Melick and most do – some trio swing time.

Lou Smaldone, bass; Brian Melick, percussion; Pete Sweeney, drums

Melick, Sweeney, Smaldone and others onstage Friday play in more then one ensemble, since our region boasts maybe more big bands than most of its size and musician population. Everybody brought their A-game Friday, hanging tight as cohesive sections and often going red-faced fierce while soloing.

Echoes abounded, mostly subtle. The bluesy “Obsidian” recalled Fats Waller’s “Black and Blue,” more thematically than melodically; “Leonine” packed propulsive “Blue Rondo Ala Turk” clusters, “Why I Fancy Nancy” cruised on “Pink Panther” cartoony glee and “Fur Ellis” eulogized Ellis Marsalis in Strayhorn-ian melancholy. The title “Morning in Morocco” made things obvious. OK, anybody? Right: “A Night in Tunisia.”

Olsen invited guests aboard, a Union student guitarist and trombonist in “Two O’Clock Jump,” a rambunctious, swinging blues in which Olsen promised 97 solos. It actually comprised only nine, but the joyous way the whole crew swung that trademark downhill riff was just as exciting. Those students had just met in class for the first time 48 hours before Olsen tossed them into the deep end.

Susie Olsen, vocals

Olsen’s singer wife Susie, joined in for “Lullabye of the Leaves” and “Caravan” in the first set and “Stardust” in the second, projecting strong, though pitchy at times to these ears, and with skilled mic technique.

Matt Steckler, soprano saxophone

Kristine Johnson, alto saxophone

The ballads bled feeling, Matt Steckler (soprano saxophone here) all poignant-lyrical in “Ballade” and Kristin Johnson likewise in “Fur Ellis.” The jump tunes, mostly classics, surged in right-now energy; Walentowicz (tenor and clarinet), trumpeters Dylan Canterbury, Steve Lambert and Jon Bronk going pedal-to-the-metal to exciting effect while Sweeney did great Gene Krupa in a terrific “Sing Sing Sing.” In that and the other classics “Take the A Train,” “Caravan” and the climactic “Two O’Clock Jump,” also Olsen’s “No Parsley (Only Pears),” everybody swung for the fences.

Dylan Canterbury, trumpet

The reed players got to show off their versatility, though solid team player Tom Gerbino stayed mostly low-down with baritone sax and bass clarinet.

Tom Germino, bass clarinet

Everybody played from charts, including Olsen, but nothing felt the least bit stiff. His arrangements took full dynamic and sonic advantage of his players’ skills, with muted brass in “Obsidian” and “I’m Tired,” wah-wah-style plunger mute in the trombones for “Dutch Treat,” for example; and a congas explosion in “Caravan.”

However, this was always in service of the songs rather than any “young-persons’-guide-to-big-band” educational agenda – though lots of students attended.

A Place for Jazz continues Friday, Sept. 20 with the Warren Wolfe/Joe Locke Quartet in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium at SUNY Schenectady. Show time is 7:30 p.m. $25. http://www.aplaceforjazz.org.

Set List

Winter Journey*

Portnoy’s Complaint*

Dutch Treat*

Obsidian*

Lullabye of the Leaves***

Caravan***

I’m Tired**

Park Avenue**

Sing Sing Sing***

Leonine*

Ballade*