CD review day!

I've been listening to Manhattan Wildlife Refuge from Bill Watrous since I was, oh, thirteen. It's difficult to write a review of a recording that I loved so much as a teen that it actually shaped the way I came to love jazz and big band music. My middle-school band teacher introduced me to it, of course!

This a marvelous relic of a time in jazz when big bands were declining and the genre itself was splitting between the swing tradition and the rhythms and vocabulary of rock music. In the early Seventies, a lot of jazz musicians chose a middle path, invoking both swing and rock. In a sense, this disk is a time capsule of that era, as well as my own growth as a musician, learning from old recordings.

And what a time capsule it is! The band is young and, in the vernacular of the time, they're fiery cats. It's a traditional big band, as I came to understand these things, four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, and a rhythm section complete with guitar and synthesizer. They move between a hint of Latin rhythms, swinging ballads, and even some rock. They sound like they're having a lot of fun, which is probably the most important reason to enjoy this disk.

Mr. Watrous was a young turk, and a dazzling technician on the trombone (he's still the latter); while his solos lack imagination at times, he plays at warp speed in the speedier tunes, but reveals his now-trademark lyricism and gorgeous singing tone on the slower ones. The other featured soloist is trumpeter Danny Stiles, who tends to loaf creatively and repeat pet riffs, but enjoys a lead trumpeter's big tone.

I really enjoy the bright colors and sugary tones of the arrangements. The middle of the disk has a big work called "Fourth Floor Walk-Up" that slowly builds in intensity--punctuated by an unaccompanied solo by Mr. Watrous in the middle. The solo's not a great musical moment, but I still haven't found a more impressive exhibition of trombone skills (although a bit arduous at roughly two minutes). Mr. Stiles is also featured in a cadenza on "Dichotomy", which is just OK. In fact, between the ripping-fast swing of "Zip City" and the burnished, sweet tones of "Dee Dee", you get some great big sounds and some intimate ones, too.

Overall, this is a good bunch of musicians playing some strong arrangements. Best of all, they sound like they know it and they're happy to revel in their talents. Fun, if not consistently genius--and that's not too bad.

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• George Crumb: Night Of The Four Moons
• Living Colour: Stain
  
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Robyn Holloway: Concerto For Orchestra No. 2
• Nine Inch Nails: Further Down The Spiral
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 1