There is nothing like being taken into the hands of a true professional and gently guided for a couple of hours by a craftsman who has spent an entire career learning the nuances of his work.
That applies to everything from woodworking to political speechifying, which you could call wordworking, I suppose.
They should have posted a sign at the front of the Royal Bank Theatre Sunday night stating “Quiet — True Professional At Work” – but they didn’t need it.
All it took was the first few notes of Don Menza’s arrangement of Groovin’ Hard to realize that we were going on a great ride, thanks to the wonderful tone of the venerated Pat LaBarbera, who was the guest artist with the Mississauga Big Band Jazz Ensemble.
LaBarbera is one of those guys who gets taken for granted because he’s so firmly ingrained in the cultural landscape of the jazz scene in Toronto and Canada. He has the credentials — starting off with the Buddy Rich Band, travelling the world for years with the superb drummer Elvin Jones of the famous Detroit Jones boys (Thad and Hank who is still going strong), composer, recording artist and in the latter stages of his career, a great teacher at Humber, York and U of T.
And boy did he put the lie to the old saying that those who can’t.... teach. More like those who can... still play.
The Mt. Morris, N.Y. native whose brother Joe is a drummer of note and whose trumpeting brother John is a master of arranging (as we saw Sunday), has a habit of unearthing orphan songs: minor standards that deserve to be much more widely known but aren’t. His Juno-award winning CD called Deep in a Dream is a whole collection of such hidden treasures.
He played a couple of beauties in his first set with the 18-piece MBBJE. One was Fantazm, a 1948 Duke Ellington piece that his brother rearranged for his 2005 big band CD of the same name. It started with John Frias on baritone sax doing a lovely Harry Carney impression. A muted trombone ensemble section followed, then drummer Jay Boehmer on malletts transformed into LaBarbera on soprano, a too-neglected instrument. The piece conjured images, inevitably, of sinuous snake-charming music that put you into a bygone era.
Fantazm was followed by an exquisite arrangement by Ron Collier (who once directed MBBKE) called Midsummer, this time with LaBarbera on tenor. It was if we were suddenly swinging in the hammock at the cottage on a peaceful summer’s afternoon, with our favourite book and our favourite tenor man at our beck and call, performing our favourite song.
The saxophonist recalled how Collier, who worked with Ellington, had the great band leader come to Humber College to do a workshop following his famous Midsummer Night’s dream concert at the Stratford Festival.
The concert wasn’t all peaches and cream by any stretch and everyone got to stretch out on pieces like Sweet Georgia Brown and Walk on The Wild Side.
Tenor Time offered LaBarbera trading bars, and friendly barbs, with Dave Coules who more than held his own for the home side.
It was a wonderful evening which, unfortunately, did not draw the audience it deserved. Those lucky enough to be there recognized what they experienced, however, and rewarded the guest and his swingin’ hosts with what MBBJE said was its first-ever standing ovation. It was, you should pardon the pun, soundly deserved.