 |
Ethan Weisgard
World Jazz Monthly
|
| The Danish Radio
Big Band has had the pleasure of working with conductor,
arranger and bandleader Maria Schneider on several
occasions and every time it has been a wonderful
experience. Maria has a great combination of qualities.
She is very good at explaining exactly how she wants the
music she is conducting to sound. She is very precise
when explaining what she wants to us in the band when
using musical terms. But she is also extremely good at
explaining how she wants the feelings and emotions of the
music to be expressed. This adds an extra dimension to
the music. Maria is very efficient and firm when she
works with the band during rehearsals, but at the same
time she is very friendly and warm. This is the perfect
combination when a bandleader has to make 20 people work
together to learn a lot of music in a short period of
time! We had a rehearsal day just with the band before we
started rehearsals with Maria and David Sanborn. We like
to do this, so that we can go through the music
beforehand, in preparation for the full rehearsals. We have worked with David Sanborn twice before, the last time was also a tour of Europe, playing the music of Gil Evans. This was to be the theme of our tour this time, too. David had played with the Gil Evans Orchestra for more than 10 years, starting in the 1970s, so he had a special emotional connection with the music. And Maria had worked quite a lot with Gil Evans in his later years, doing arrangements for him. So she also had a special feeling for his music. And as something extra special, the original arrangements of many of Gil Evans' classic tunes had been fond. These scores had been lost for many years. The arrangements, from among other things, the musical "Porgy and Bess," which had Miles Davis playing the lead voice, had not been played in their original form since the actual recordings of this material. David Sanborn was to play the lead voice in the arrangements. The idea was for another instrument to interpret the music, since Miles David versions of the Gil Evans arrangements could not be matched. no matter how good the trumpet soloist! David Sanborn's soulful and dynamic playing was the perfect match for the arrangements. Working with David Sanborn is a very rewarding experience for other musicians. To put it simply, David Sanborn plays his heart out, each and every time he plays his horn, at every rehearsal and every concert. This is a true lesson to all of us musicians: there is only one way of playing music-with 100 percent commitment! Even though David is one of the most famous saxophone players in the world today, he always comes to play with us as a fellow musician and colleague. He is an inspiration to all the musicians who have had the experience of working with him. Our first job was in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. It is a city with strong cultural traditions. The audience was very attentive, and reacted very warmly to the music. David's playing went straight to their hearts! Maria lead us expertly through the arrangements. She explained about the music and the arrangements being lost for so many years, so the audience was aware that this was a special chance to hear these well-known songs in their original form. I believe this made the audience even more appreciative of the music. Our second job was in Copenhagen, at a large club, a converted movie theatre, usually used for rock concerts. The audience was a great mixture of people of all ages. Even though it was not a jazz club, the audience had come specifically to enjoy the experience of hearing David Sanborn playing with the Radio Big Band. Our first concert in Aarhus had been very good. This is because the first concert of a tour has a special feeling: finally playing the music for a real audience for the first time id very enjoyable. But usually, each concert you play, you get more and more familiar with the music. The arrangements become "tighter", meaning they are played with more rhythmic and tonal precision and the rhythm section sounds more at ease with the music. When we, as a rhythm section, get to know the arrangements well, then we can stretch out and improvise more during the solos. And we did! David, even though he was playing masterfully from the beginning, was even more inspired in his solos this evening. His interpretations of the melody lines were also developing for each time he played the songs. The audience responded very well, and the people I talked with from the audience after the concert were very happy. We had a two-day break after the Copenhagen concert and then it was time to head for Vienna, Austria for our first European concert. We had three concerts to play, in Vienna, Helsinki in Finland, and Vilnius in Lithuania. We had chartered a two-propeller airplane which could seat about 40 people, for the tour. This way we could have all our instruments, the entire orchestra and tour staff all together, Logistically, it was the only way we could make sure that we could get to the destinations on time with our equipment and staff to play the three concerts. But it did make us feel a little bit like stars, having our own chartered airplane! The concert in Vienna was at the beautiful Wiener Koncerthauz, the classical Concert House. It was a private concert, for a group of bankers. There were 1800 people in the hall for the concert. I wasn't sure if modern big band music and David Sanborn's powerful saxophone playing was something that this kind of audience would enjoy or not. Also, the opening number of our concert tour, to introduce the band and Maria before bringing out David, was a very long and complex arrangement of Maria's, called "Hang Gliding." It is a very modern piece, played in a complex 11/8 rhythmic meter, It has two long solos in it. It is a beautiful piece, but not the usual standard big band-type material. After a huge round of applause upon entering the stage with the band, and an even bigger and more enthusiastic reaction after our first number, I was no longer in doubt- this was a very good audience we were playing for! They were open towards everything we played for them. Playing music in such a beautiful concert hall, in the beautiful city of Vienna, made us all feel very inspired. The acoustics in the hall were very good, even though it was built for classical orchestras. The acoustics also inspired us to play our utmost. And after each number, the applause of 1800 people spurred us on. When the concert was over, and we were taking down our equipment, one of the audience members sat down at the piano and played a little bit of jazz piano. It turned out that this was the arranger of the concert, the man who had the beautiful idea of hiring the Danish Radio Big Band with Maria Schneider and David Sanborn to play at this private function. It made me happy to see that a person in the sometimes very cold world of big business had a taste for good jazz music, and that he presented this music to so many others in his world. Bravo for him! We had one free day in Vienna. This meant that we didn't have to go to bed early after our concert, and this kind of situation always brings something fun with it! We were staying at a very nice hotel, the Inter Continental. In the lobby bar there was a piano, bass and violin trio playing when we came back after the concert. After a few drinks, our piano player Nikolaj Bentzon and I thought it might be fun to ask if we could "sit in" with them. I didn't have any percussion with me, so I went looking for something I could play on. Being a percussionist, I am used to playing on anything that makes a sound. I came back with my newly found instrument: an ice bucket, used for chilling wine or champagne! It made a very fine hand drum. It must have looked very funny, the trio all wearing tuxedoes and Nikolaj and I in our black Big Band suits, with me banging away on an ice bucket! We played quite a few jazz standard, and had a good time playing with the hotel musicians. When we finished playing, on the way up to the bar for a final drink, an American man who had been sitting and listening while enjoying his drink said to me "Hey man, you play a mean ice-bucket!" I have never had that compliment before! Our next concert was in Helsinki, Finland. After a rather long but enjoyable flight in our private plane we landed in Finland. The weather in Vienna had been almost spring-like. In Finland it was below zero and very dry. We played at the concert hall in Helsinki that housed the Finnish Symphony Orchestra. It was a very fine concert hall. We were treated very nicely by the concert hall staff, everything was taken care of for us very professionally. The concert that evening had a nice feeling to it, since we all had a day off, and had gathered our strength again. The Finnish audiences are usually a little bit reserved in their reactions. This was also the case at this concert, but this does not mean that they don't like the music. On the contrary, they were listening very carefully. I believe there were quite many musicians in the audience, both from the Symphony Orchestra as well as from other groups as well. Our final destination was Vilnius. David had played there before, but at a different venue. Having arrived on time after yet another pleasant flight, we drove through the city to our hotel to check in. The city is beautiful, with very many old churches and other historical buildings. Our hotel was in the center of the old part of town. This part has been restored and is full of fine shops and restaurants. The hotel itself was in a beautifully restored building that was more than 500 years old. There were nice comfortable rooms with large bathrooms. And there was a beautiful cellar restaurant where they had lunch waiting for us. There is an old saying in the music world that if the band is treated well (nice hotels and good meals), they will play well. And it's true! The concert hall was, just as in Helsinki, the Vilnius Symphony Orchestra's own hall. It was very modern, with good dressing rooms, a good auditorium and a very helpful staff. The people of Vilnius we met were all very kind and helpful. Also, in the concert hall, even though the room was large enough to seat about 900 people, the stage was fairly low. Usually concert hall stages are very high, making it difficult to see your audience. Bands like to play on low stages, close to the audience. (Unless you are superstars and have to worry about security from wild fans. This is not a problem for us!) When you can see the people you are playing for up close, you can see how they react to the music. This is very inspiring for musicians. The concert went extremely well. There were so many people who wanted to get in to the concert, the concert arrangers let in an extra 200 guests. The staff put up extra chairs and there were people standing up along the sides of the room! This was the most enthusiastic audience of the entire tour. I believe it was a mixture of circumstances that made the audience respond so well : there were definitely very many David Sanborn fans in the hall that evening. But also, I believe that the people of Vilnius were open to any kind of music. It didn't matter if they were jazz fans or not. If the music moved them, then they responded. And they did respond! This was truly the best possible ending to a wonderful tour. I believe that good music, when played with total commitment, transcends the borders of musical styles. And this is what we proved with our tour: people who normally hear Daved Sanborn playing, hear him playing with exactly the same beautiful sound and dynamic, rhythmic phrasing as they are used to hearing on his own recordings. But they are hearing his playing in another musical setting. And liking it! And when they hear the Danish Radio Big Band, inspired by Maria Schneider conducting us and David Sanborn playing his heart out, then I believe that even people who normally don't like big band music will get a positive experience out of one of our concerts. I think that we created some jazz and big band fans out of many people in our audiences on this tour! And I hope that we can bring this fantastic combination out on tour to many more places around the world: the soulful playing of David Sanborn with the Danish Radio Big Band, inspired by the conducting of Maria Schneider. March 27, 2003 |
| Back | In Japanese | Home |