JAZZ REVIEW : Brisker Band Performs Peppily at Museum
- Share via
The word must be getting out--as it should--that one of the most attractive summer venues for jazz is the bright and airy Times Mirror Central Court of the County Museum of Art. Sunday afternoon an overflow crowd showed up to hear the Gordon Brisker big band perform in the second of this year’s program of free jazz concerts.
Despite the less than optimal acoustics of the court’s many planes and surfaces, saxophonist/arranger Brisker and his musicians achieved some remarkably well-integrated textures.
Brisker’s orchestrations were several levels above the too-familiar saxophone/trumpet/trombone section demarcation typical of big-band scoring.
His most effective technique was the juxtaposition of one cross-sectional assembly of instruments against another. A typical example: fluegelhorn, tenor saxophone and muted trombone playing counterlines to soprano saxophone and muted trumpet. The resulting interplay of timbres provided Brisker with that most unusual of big-band achievements--a sound of his own.
To his credit, Brisker gave plenty of space to a collection of musicians that included a healthy mix of veterans and youngsters. His generosity was rewarded with a number of dynamic performances. Among the best: Kim Richmond’s fleet alto saxophone on “Be My Love”; Anne King’s trumpet on “Are We Not the Cats”; Charlie Loper’s trombone on J. J. Johnson’s lovely ballad, “Lament”; Bob Summers’ trumpet and fluegelhorn solos on almost everything; Carl Saunders’ lip-popping lead trumpet work; Kei Akagi’s remarkable piano and Doug Webb’s outer limits tenor saxophone on “Orientale.”
More to Read
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.