Review: Saturday at the Mercury Café: Big Band Boogie Bash

The Mercury Café on Saturday afternoon was filled with Big Band music from across the front range.  Eagle Crest, Boulder, and Poudre High Schools, C-U Boulder, and C-S-U Fort Collins, and the CCJA band all performed, as did the U-N-C lab band one from Greeley, directed by Dana Landry.  Their set was based on an Alice In Wonderland electronica meets big band theme, with vocalist Jamie Scriber providing interspersing narration through musical sections describing Alice discovering a new world before her.   The music began with a low roaring synthesizer, giving way to an interlude of playful flutes, leading to a full orchestral section highlighted by a soaring soprano saxophone solo by Chang Su. 

The second offering written by trumpeter Greg Weiss almost had a “Theme from Shaft” (Isaac Hayes) feel to it, and it cooked like crazy with a blistering tenor sax solo from Darrell Watson, who later traded riffs with Weiss and the end of the song.   That gave way to an update on “I’m Late”, arranged by one of the trombonists on stage, Mike Conrad.  The Tick-tock, tick-tock open to the I’m late refrain from each horn section and a synthesizer refrain of the theme took this Stan Getz classic into the stratosphere…and would only be outdone a little later by a U-N-C lab band original “Mad Hatter”.

Before “Mad Hatter”, Dana Landry brought vocalist Julian Cary to the stage to change gears a bit, but no one in the audience complained as he began a spellbinding version of Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday”.  His deep, warm voice filled the room, and the audience was silent and attentive.  The band painted the perfect musical backdrop for Cary’s rich voice. (Julian Cary is the grandson of the great jazz pianist Joe Keel of Denver).    

“Mad Hatter”, from Zach Rich, was a 6/8 romp which brought back memories of Frank Zappa’s “King Kong” in an instant.  It was a wonderful vehicle with vocalist Allison Wheeler at the wheel.  The weaving horn arrangements were punctuated by a muscular tenor saxophone solo by Darrell Watson, which then gave way to a no-time guitar passage by Adam Wissman; his playing reminiscent of John McLaughlin’s work on Joe Farrell’s “Follow Your Heart”, only to have Wissman pick-up the 6/8 theme again in a take no prisoners attack on the fretboard; all seamless, and very well done.

Where do these kids come from?

The last number “Down the Rabbit Hole” featured vocalist Julia Dollison.  Written by UNC faculty member Eric Applegate, it was perhaps the most predictable song of the band’s set.  It started and concluded with a steady rock beat; but during a surprising middle passage the band broke into a no-time sequence which threw-off everybody in the crowd, with horn sections going about their playful way, only to return to the steady beat at the end.  

The big take away from it all:  Colorado continues to have solid, young players and vocalists emerging up and down the Front Range.  And if you don’t get out often to the small and large venues to listen, you have no idea how good it all really is.