Al Hirt’s big band swings, rocks
by Matthew Maguire, The Knickerbocker News, August 30, 1980
Not all of the 2,500 jazz fans got exactly what they wanted from Al Hirt’s first area appearance with his new and surprising big band.
But most of them liked what they got at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Friday night — tight, spicy, big-band music blending the best of the old big bands with the rocking, funky feel of the new ones.
Hirt borrowed liberally from traditions of other big band leaders. The band swung like Basie’s. On Duke Ellington numbers, the reed section accurately reproduced the Ellington blend. The rock numbers had the same pizazz Woody Herman gives them.
Surprisingly, however, Hirt and his new band sound most of all like the early, underappreciated big bands of another trumpeter — Maynard Ferguson.
The similarity first became apparent during “Stay and See,” a moderate-tempo swing vehicle for the young soloists in the band. Hirt’s weaving duet with one of his young trumpeters was much like Ferguson’s early recordings of “Airegin” and “Three More Foxes.”
Hirt’s big band trumpeting also recalls Ferguson’s early work, both in its strengths and weaknesses. Like Ferguson, Hirt has prodigious technique, a crisp, crackling tone, a facility in upper registers, and an excellent feeling for ballads. And, like Ferguson, but not to the same extent, Hirt tends to show off his technique and upper-register work a little too much.
The ballads “Send in the Clowns” and “Prelude to a Kiss” highlighted the first set. The second was uniformly stronger, featuring “Rocky” (Ferguson again!) and bright new interpretations of “South Rampart Street Parade,” and “Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye.”
Best of all was the second encore number, “In the Mood,” deliciously spiced up the same way trombonist Bill Watrous once turned “Sweet George Brown” in “Sweet George Upside Down.”
The rest of the band comprised young players with much promise, but not much maturity.
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