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Wednesday, May 21 – 10:00pm
Jazz Monsters Personnel
Jeff Helgesen, reporter Wednesday night’s concert featured West Coast studio legend George Graham backed by the Jazz Monsters Big Band. Founded in 1997, the Jazz Monsters is a local band made up primarily of area music educators, founded by Chuck Conpher and Larry Harrison.  The band opened the concert with Sammy Nestico’s arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown (originally penned for the Count Basie band), which featured Jerry Samuels on piano and Roger Pace on tenor saxophone. They continued with Gordon Goodwin’s Count Bubba, which featured each of the horn sections in succession before yielding to solos from trumpeters Brian Standridge and Darryl McConn, tenor saxophonist Renee O’Zuna, and trombonist Ken George. They concluded their opening portion with David Metzger’s composition Free Beer, featuring Ken George on trombone.The large crowd then offered a warm ovation for George Graham, who was featured on Tom Kubis’s up-tempo samba Peanut Face. Graham played an extensive solo in the middle of the piece and ended by exploring the upper register. For his second number, Graham selected Bob Florence’s arrangement of the standard My Funny Valentine, a ballad that Graham said was perhaps his favorite arrangement in his book. He again took the opportunity to explore the melody early with a lush sound in the middle register, ending with some exciting upper register work.  The Jazz Monsters took over again and played Bill Holman’s arrangement of Norwegian Wood, originally written for the Buddy Rich Big Band. Ken George was again featured on trombone, and Clyde Jones soloed on alto saxophone. The band then featured pianist Jerry Samuels on the ballad Young and Foolish. Also featured was trumpeter John Thomas, who was splitting lead with the band, on a powerful high-note treatment of the melody.Graham returned to feature another piece from his book, When Doc Hit The Fan, in a medium swing tempo that featured pianist Samuels and Graham on muted trumpet. The concert concluded with Graham offering a heartfelt dedication to Tommy Loy (the fine trumpet player who was well-known as the performer of the national anthem for the Dallas Cowboy football games) and featured Graham on Bob Florence’s lush reharmonization of Auld Lang Syne. |
Trumpet Prelude: Program to be selected from the following:
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