If a jazz concert calls for co-leaders who have big-band credentials, drummer
Peter Erskine
and trumpeter
Tim Hagans
are both well qualified for the job.
Erskine
's resume includes experience in the orchestras of
Stan Kenton
and
Maynard Ferguson
, while
Hagans
' big-band experience includes
Kenton
,
Woody Herman
the Danish Radio Big Band
(under
Thad Jones
' direction), and
Maria Schneider
. Neither have played with big bands exclusively by any means, but both of them have demonstrated that they are comfortable in both a small-group environment and a big-band environment -- and they certainly sound like they are enjoying themselves on
Worth the Wait
. Recorded live in Lulea, Sweden, in 2006, this 68-minute CD finds co-leaders
(who serves as the concert's conductor) joining forces with Sweden's
Norrbotten Big Band
. Between
, and
Norrbotten
, there are 18 musicians on board; however, the soloists have plenty of room to stretch out. Big-band concerts, by their very nature, require a strong sense of teamwork, but that doesn't prevent the soloists on this post-bop/hard bop disc (who include
, tenor saxophonist
Mats Garberg
, and alto saxophonist
Hakan Brostroem
) from sounding uninhibited.
Brostroem
, for example, seriously digs into
' modal offering
"First Jazz."
Quite often, big bands are stereotyped as predictable outfits that are obligated to embrace
Buddy Rich
-type arrangements and play a lot of overdone Tin Pan Alley warhorses. But there are no warhorses on
; all of the material performed was composed by either
or
.
is a solid document of
's 2006 encounter with
in Sweden. ~ Alex Henderson