The Vail Jazz Party, concluding tomorrow at the tent in Vail Square, featured a bevy of talented performers on its Sunday programs.
Ted Rosenthal, pianist for vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway, was featured in two brilliant instrumental groups. The first, under his leadership, featured the soulful alto sax of Donald Harrison and the multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson. While there have been a few players who doubled on brass and woodwind instruments, I've never seen anyone who could switch between the two families as quickly and effortlessly as Robinson, who on two different occasions, switched from cornet to tenor sax and played full solos on each! Harrison proved an able foil on the front line with his deeply ingratiating sound and style. The rhythm section, completed by Martin Wind (bass) and Ali Jackson (drums), was tight and cohesive. The group, assembled by festival producer Howard Stone, was one of the best pick-up groups I've ever heard at Vail, and it would be great for this group to work together more often.
After a set by the Clayton Brothers (which included a surprise appearance by the Vail Jazz All-Stars), Rosenthal was back in a quintet featuring trumpeter Byron Stripling. As shown in his Saturday night guest appearance with Callaway, Stripling is a master showman whose style leans towards the traditional. All of the tunes were standards or blues, and Stripling effectively uses his vocals as comic relief. His version of a Clark Terry slow blues featured a hilarious set of verses about his not-so-svelt girlfriend. All of the members of the group, including Bobby Broom (guitar), Ben Wolfe (bass) and Ernie Adams (drums) were very comfortable in such surroundings and all performed magnificently on this set.
The evening session opened with pianist Aaron Diehl, whose solo set featured the music of Willie The Lion Smith, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. Diehl's touch was quite understated most of the time, and he saved the forcefulness of his playing for dramatic emphasis.
Chie Imaizumi's Little Big Band was a fixture on the Denver jazz scene until the leader's recent move to LA. The edition of the group heard at Vail included several stalwarts of the Denver scene including John Gunther, Pete Olstad and Clare Church. The rest of the 10-piece group included festival regulars such as Tamir Hendelman, Terell Stafford, John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton and Scott Robinson. Imaizumi led the group in a set of 8 originals which displayed her brilliant composing and arranging skills. While the basic sound of the ensemble owes much to the work of Maria Schneider, Imaizumi creates those sounds with only six horns (as compared to Schneider's full big band personnel). Nearly all of the band members got solos during the set, but Robinson and Hamilton stole the show with an extended duet which found the saxophonist going backward and forward in jazz history and the drummer keeping up with (and egging on) the saxophonist at every turn. Imaizumi was a delight to watch during this duet, as she was clearly surprised to see how these great musicians were interpreting her score.
Bill Cunliffe (not a relation to me, as far as we know) offered a superb multi-media tribute to Oscar Peterson. While not as dramatic as Callaway's tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on Saturday night, Cunliffe's tribute was every bit as personal. He wisely avoided the temptation to imitate the virtuoso pianist and the selections performed by his group were personal favorites rather than important milestones in Peterson's career. Peterson was well-represented in vintage film clips. In addition to solo and trio concert clips, there was an astounding piece where Peterson gave a master class in piano to Dick Cavett. Jeff Hamilton also appeared on stage to tell of his time working with Peterson. Cunliffe and fellow trio members John Clayton and Lewis Nash closed the tribute with a trio version of Cunliffe's Grammy-winning big-band arrangement of "West Side Story" highlights (which in turn was based on the Peterson trio's early sixties LP).
For the final afternoon of the Vail Jazz Party, all but three of the featured musicians in the party will be featured again. The Vail party is one of Colorado's premier showcases for straight-ahead jazz. So if you can get up to Vail tomorrow, don't miss this event.
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