Get ready to be blown out by some of the greatest big bands in the U.S. – or, perhaps, to be blown away.
That’s the message coming from the 17th annual Newport Beach Jazz Party, which opens Thursday at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and runs the entire weekend.
Having big bands on the bill is by no means unusual for the event, but event co-producer John McClure does note what is indeed a first for this year’s “big band blowout”:
“After producing 31 jazz parties and 20-plus years of producing live jazz events in Orange County, we’ve never had big bands closing each night’s performance schedule – and I think that’s been the reason we’ve had record advance ticket sales.”
From now on, in fact, McClure and event founder and co-producer Joe Rothman are expanding the title of their signature jazz event to the “Newport Beach Jazz Party and Big Band Blowout.”
Rothman and McClure outlined two goals for this year’s party: to book what Rothman calls “six of the country’s finest jazz ensembles” and, McClure said, “to connect a theme to each evening’s big band presentation.”
The result is that this year’s party is delivering six major big band acts: Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, the Frank Capp Juggernaut Big Band, the Phil Norman Tentet, the Frank Sinatra Jr. Orchestra, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and the home-grown Fullerton Jazz Orchestra, a product of the vaunted jazz program at Cal State University, Fullerton.
The Frank Capp Juggernaut Big Band was highly rated by the 2014 NBJP’s patrons, so McClure and Rothman decided to honor Capp by saluting his diverse career as a drummer and his famous big band, Juggernaut. Capp’s fellow drummer Butch Miles is special guest for the band’s set on NBJP’s opening night.
The theme of the Phil Norman Tentet set – and of Norman’s newly released CD – is “Then & Now,” which salutes tunes by legends Dave Brubeck, Ahmad Jamal, Benny Golson and others through arrangements that contain what McClure calls “the basic familiar elements of the original recording – the ‘then’ – followed by more current twists of the vintage pieces.”
For the 2003 party, McClure came up with the featured set “A Salute to the Great Composers & Arrangers,” which presented a big band conducted by Johnny Mandel, Sammy Nestico, Gerald Wilson and John Clayton.
That theme set will be revisited by Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band, with Goodwin, Tom Kubis and legendary 93-year-old composer and arranger Nestico taking turns conducting the band with their favorite compositions and arrangements.
Rothman said he and McClure have presented the Cal State University Fullerton Jazz Orchestra “a number of times in previous years” under Grammy Award-winner Bill Cunliffe’s direction, so combining this student big band with Woody Herman alums Joe LaBarbera and Jerry Pinter “made the ‘Salute to the Woody Herman Thundering Herd’ theme a natural.”
Frank Sinatra, Jr. having headlined the 2011 Jazz Party, and his recent passing in March 2016, prompted McClure and Rothman to invite Terry Woodson, the band’s conductor, to bring back his Frank Sinatra, Jr. Orchestra in a tribute to Sinatra, Jr. Guest vocalist Steve Tyrell will share stories of his more recent experiences performing with Frank Jr.
Last year’s party marked the 30th-anniversary year of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, a favorite big band of Rothman and McClure’s – so they called its inclusion “an easy choice.”
Featuring big bands isn’t new for presenters Rothman and McClure. Since their first jazz party in 1995, they’ve hired dozens – the Count Basie Orchestra, Woody Herman Orchestra, Buddy Rich Alumni Big Band and the Jack Sheldon Jazz Orchestra, to name a few.
Rothman said that “as long as we keep signing the best big bands around and our fans keep coming back for more, the sun will never set on the jazz scene – at least not in Southern California.”
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