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James Moody

by Alan Greenblatt

James Moody is one of the few major jazz musicians to have a serious Las Vegas period, and he remains a wonderful, unashamed showman. He's a brilliant tenor sax player, and when he yodels and lisps his way through "Benny's from Heaven," it would take a stoney heart to resist his charm.

I had really looked forward to his appearance this past weekend with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. The SJMO has solidified its line-up over the past couple of years and can always boast top-notch musicians. But the band has wanted for outstanding soloists and has often sounded a bit stilted when it recreated the classic big band recordings of yore.

Playing bebop tunes with and without Moody, though, the SJMO boys (and two women) were able to cut loose. Many of the tunes they played were either originals or hadn't historically been orchestrated for a full big band, and so the musicians could sail free pretty much as they pleased, which is how jazz is generally meant to be, after all.

The concert was heavy on tunes by Dizzy Gillespie, who, in addition to his seminal small-group work with Charlie Parker, led an important bebop big band. As would be expected, this gave the trumpet section plenty of room to blow, with Tom Williams the most successful at capturing Dizzy's effulgent virtuosity. (I'm sad to report that Joe Wilder, a venerable trumpet player who has been an SJMO mainstay, seems to be running out of breath and range, although he still has a luscious tone.)

Other sections got their licks in, too, notably alto sax player Charlie Young, of the Howard University faculty, who took two fine solos on "Night in Tunisia." The blended sounds of four trombones playing together on Tadd Dameron's "Ladybird" was a personal favorite. Drummer Chuck Redd as usual kept up a mighty, adaptable beat.

Charlie Parker, the leading bebop figure, was never mentioned, and even when the band played an excellent new Brent Wallarab arrangement of "Cherokee," with Moody leading the way on flute, there was no quotation of "Koko," Parker's genius reworking of the piece.

But I make such an academic quibble only to point out how happy I was that the SJMO, for once, did not feel obliged to be complete, representative, scholarly, or devoted to anything except presenting exciting music in the here and now. The band will miss Moody's enlivening presence, but will do well enough without him, I suspect, next time out. With any luck, they'll be returning to U Street's Lincoln Theater, because the Kennedy Center Concert Hall is a bit too echoey for their sound.