Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival 5/9/03

by Alan Greenblatt

What a thrill to hear a big band at full throttle in a relatively small space like the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater! Sonic pleasures aside, what made last night's appearance by the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra exceptional was her genius for orchestration. Akiyoshi drew lovely pastel colors from muted horns and flutes, her husband Lew Tabackin's big tenor sax sound sounding big and meaty soaring above. She knows just how to mix screeching trumpets with congas. And sometimes she just let a couple of the guys blow, as during a brilliant tenor sax battle between Tabackin and Tom Christensen.

Most of the tunes were Akiyoshi originals, but she also offered an interesting reading of Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy" and added some African beats to Tabackin's "Desert Lady Fantasy." Akiyoshi didn't play much piano, but when she did, she showed through her Bud Powell-style attack on individual notes what we're not hearing with every pianist relying so heavily now on chords.

In more than 20 years of watching Tabackin in person, I've never understood the connection between all of his spastic leg kicks, kneebends and foot stomping, and what he happens to be playing at the particular moment his right leg starts moving. Tabackin is a great tenor sax player and about the only flautist I can stand to hear play jazz. His solos are always exercises in building intensity, with him pursuing a melodic line until he has wrestled its possibilities to the ground.

Other players got less solo space, but what they got was choice. As is often the case with the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, which continues through tomorrow night, the bands are really examples of a woman leading men in jazz.

Akiyoshi has led her big band for 30 years, but bassist Mary Ann McSweeney normally is a side person, put into the spotlight by the festival format. She has a big sound but her sextet, which also included a husband (trombonist Mike Fahn) was merely ordinary -- except on the tunes where sitar player and didgeridooist Nana Simopoulos added some interesting textures.

Singer Melissa Walker fronted a better band, with solid playing throughout from her rhythm section. Walker has a low voice with no vibrato at all. She sings mostly love songs (what else is new) and seems more interested in created an entertaining sound than plumbing the depths of feelings that might be explored in the words. However, she spoke some of the words to a poem that pianist Shredrick Mitchell set to music and her phrasing in speech was quite original.

Walker didn't give up much of the solo space to vibes player Stefon Harris, which was a shame since he is such an intriguing young player. He will be appearing next Thursday at the Kennedy Center's KC Jazz Club. That show comes highly recommended and is only $22.