Jazz Reviews : Clarinetist Stoltzman Pays Tribute to Woody Herman

It’s a mystery why a performer who is arguably the finest of his generation on his instrument would elect to devote as much time and energy as clarinetist Richard Stoltzman has to playing a style of music which is clearly beyond the range of his skills.

His “Tribute to Woody” concert with the Woody Herman Orchestra (now led by Frank Tiberi) at the Orange County Performing Arts Center Monday night was an oddly schizophrenic performance that probably asked more questions than it answered.

The showpiece of the program, Igor Stravinsky’s rarely performed “Ebony Concerto,” was written in 1945 for the Woody Herman Orchestra--one of the memorable organizations in big band jazz history. But Stravinsky’s fascination with the Herman sound somehow never really found its way into the music, which is an odd pastiche of distorted ragtime rhythms, quirky harmonies and characteristically Stravinskian meter changes--none of which have anything in particular to do with a big jazz band.

Both Stoltzman and the Herman Orchestra acquitted themselves well, but one was always aware of musicians working at a piece, rather than making music.

“Ebony Concerto” is neither good jazz nor particularly interesting classical music, and will hardly be remembered as a major item in the Stravinsky oeuvre . It’s really little more than a relic from the period when many jazz performers gave far too much significance to recognition from classical artists. (And is that one of the operative factors in the current Stoltzman/Herman Orchestra tour? The band will perform at 8 tonight at Ambassador Auditorium, 8 p.m. Thursday at Haugh Performing Arts Center at Citrus College and 8 p.m. Friday at Marsee Auditorium at El Camino College.)

The true breadth and scope of Stoltzman’s considerable talents were only really apparent in his performance of two brief pieces--neither one having anything to do with jazz.

The first was Debussy’s little prelude, “Maid With the Flaxen Hair,” a work whose triple pianissimo high notes have been the bane of every student clarinetist who’s ever been obliged to give a recital. Stoltzman played the piece with such ease and grace that one could only marvel at the control that is required to make music of such deceptively demanding simplicity.

The second impressive Stoltzman performance was on one (and why play only one?) of Stravinsky’s “Three Solo Pieces for Clarinet.” In this case, Stravinsky’s fascination with ragtime worked very well indeed to produce a showcase clarinet miniature.

But Stoltzman’s improvisational work with the Herman orchestra was far less impressive. A bright, brassy run through “Apple Honey” was more exciting because of the sheer power of the five trumpets than because of Stoltzman’s wailing high notes.