Jazz Reviews : Clarinetist Stoltzman Pays Tribute to Woody Herman

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

It’s a mystery. But then, Stoltzman’s “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. Both Stoltzman and the orchestra acquitted themselves well, but one was always aware of musicians working at a piece, rather than making music.

Part of the fault was in the composition, not the performers. Stravinsky’s fascination with the Herman sound somehow never really found its way into this music, an odd pastiche of distorted ragtime rhythms, quirky harmonies and characteristically Stravinskian meter changes--none of which has anything in particular to do with a big jazz band.

“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 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 of Stoltzman’s impressive performances 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 whose shifting rhythms are hard enough to play, much less bring alive with the buoyancy and delight that Stoltzman brought to the music.

Two other works were arranged specifically for a new RCA Red Seal recording by Stoltzman and the orchestra. One, “American Medley,” includes a well--scored set of variations on “Amazing Grace,” “America the Beautiful” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic”; the other was a medley from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” Stoltzman’s tone was ravishing, especially during the unaccompanied solo opening of “Amazing Grace” and the lean lyrical “Maria” and “There’s a Place for Us.” 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. While impressive enough for a performer whose skills are not in the jazz area, Stoltzman’s efforts were out of their class--even in comparison with the less--than--well-known members of the Herman aggregation.

One suspects, in fact, that any of the four woodwind players in the orchestra probably could have improvised far more provocatively than Stoltzman did. Why, then, does he bother? Perhaps because, by his own account, he grew up with jazz and loves it. In any case, his association with the orchestra certainly has brought more luster to this tour than a ghost big band might ordinarily expect.

Given the appropriate material, such as the American and “West Side Story” medleys, Stoltzman functions very well as a kind of jazz--tinged James Galway. But his improvisations need, at the very least, more wood--shedding.

The orchestra itself performed creditably under Tiberi’s direction, although the four--saxophone format suffers from the absence of Tiberi’s own playing during those many moments when he is fronting the ensemble.