The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra - Concert Review

This past September, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra played Clemson University’s Brooks Center for the first time ever. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is a big band-style jazz group that hails from New York City. Regarded as one of the greatest big bands in the history of music, their performance at Clemson fell nothing short of amazing. The night was filled with compositions and arrangements mostly from Thad Jones, an original member, with a few exceptions, including the Wayne Shorter tune E.S.P. The music was everything I expected, and the solos swept me off of my feet. I felt that the performance was excellent and I would definitely see them again if the opportunity presented itself.
Formed in 1966 by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra was first called the Mel Lewis – Thad Jones Orchestra, and later, just simply The Jazz Band. The Jazz Band originally booked three nights at NYC’s west village jazz club, The Village Vanguard, in February 1966. Those three nights became legendary, and the start of what would be an over four decade existence. After world-wide tours and several replacements of band members, the big band went on to become the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The VJO currently plays the Village Vanguard every Monday night, while still managing to play different venues around the world.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra flew down to South Carolina just hours after its regular New York City gig on September 10th. At 4:00pm on Tuesday, September 11th, the VJO was on stage at the Brooks Center for rehearsal and sound check. I personally got to witness this, and it was incredible. The group consisted of 16 musicians; four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, and a rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums.
Their warm-up was very standard of a big band, playing through a few Thad Jones tunes with no solos being taken. They mainly practiced their harmonies, tweaking and fine tuning a few things. After about 20 minutes, or so, they stopped playing and focused their attention on the handful of students, including myself, that were on were on stage watching them rehearse. They interacted with us a lot and answered all of our questions. They were polite and very eager to share some of their musical knowledge with us.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra opened the evening with “Mean What You Say,” a Thad Jones tune. The intro was a vamp played by the rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums). The horns came in on the second chorus. After the head, there were solos from one saxophone and one trumpet. The second tune of the night was “E.S.P.,” a very well known jazz standard, written by Wayne Shorter. The solos on “E.S.P.” were great, featuring a trumpet solo accompanied only by the bass for one chorus, and a saxophone solo. Following the Shorter tune was another Thad Jones composition, “The Little Rascal on a Rock.” This tune uniquely featured three flutes, played by three random members of the horn section. The bass, piano, and baritone sax all took solos. The forth tune was the lively classic “A Frame for the Blues,” written by Slide Hampton. The entire horn section played the melody in harmony, a trademark of the swing era. “A Frame for the Blues,” a 16 bar 1-4-5 blues, featured several soloists whaling for several choruses each. The last tune of the first set was another Thad Jones original, called “Cherry Juice.” The fast, walking bass stole the attention on this tune, even over the several horn solos that were taken. Somewhere in the first set I recall one of the horns teasing the melody of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts” during their solo, I just can’t remember what tune it was on.
The second set was even better than the first, starting with another jazz blues tune arranged by Thad Jones. After the long blues jam that kicked off the second set, the VJO started playing more avante garde and contemporary jazz tunes, very familiar to the current New York jazz scene. The standout of the set was “Don’t Eat Ash,” which featured a long bass solo played very “outside” and incorporated certain nuances very unfamiliar to the upright bass. After that, the VJO played another Thad Jones tune that was originally written for Rich Perry, called “The Interloper.” The sound was very reminiscent of the big band swing era and was a nice change of mood after hearing a few contemporary compositions.
For the finale, the VJO to end the night with, of course, another Thad Jones tune, except this time a ballad. “To you” was dedicated to the victims of the World Trade Center attacks, which was only appropriate since it was the six year anniversary.
The highlight of the performance, for me, was the drums/percussion, played by New York great John Riley. They put on a great show, play a good variety of tunes, and have excellent soloists. I personally would have liked to see a guitar in the band, but there has never been a guitarist with them in the 40+ years they have been around. If given the opportunity, I would definitely see them again and hope they come back to the Brooks Center in the future.