Jazz Reviews : Gerald Wilson in Concert at LACMA

One day shy of his 71st birthday, Gerald Wilson, the Mississippi-born composer and band leader, offered an afternoon concert Sunday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that was nearly as hot as the mid-day sun.

Working with a youthful and exuberant big band (familiar faces such as trumpeter Snooky Young and saxophonist Harold Land Sr., have been replaced with “guys ready to move,” according to Wilson), the band leader waved the 17-man ensemble through an opening set that barely scratched the surface of his compositional breadth and scope.

Wilson’s credits are as profound as his efforts, and an opening “You Better Believe It” displayed the late-’40s style he provided for Count Basie that, Wilson recalled Sunday afternoon, Basie “made millions off of.”

Kicked off at an easy pace, the tune displayed all of the precision swing and dynamic variance that the Basie outfit came to embrace. Added features to this outing were solos by alto saxophonist Danny House (himself an alumnus of the Basie band) and bassist Louie Spears.

Wilson next turned his attention to Duke Ellington, another of the famed band leaders for whom Wilson wrote and played, and offered an arrangement of “Sophisticated Lady.” The familiar melody received unique treatment, becoming a great and rousing powerhouse of a vehicle for tenor saxophonist Carl Randall.

Moving forward in music history to the Miles Davis book, Wilson next featured the searingly creative trumpet of Oscar Brashear and the trombones of Thurman Green and Randy Young on a reading of “Milestones.” The tune burned at a breakneck tempo provided by bassist Spears and drummer Mel Lee and featured some deft piano work by Brian O’Rourke.

Closing out the set was Wilson’s “Blues for Yna Yna,” a tune that gained hit status by both Stan Kenton and Art Blakey in the early ‘60s. A waltz, the tune loped gently along and displayed Wilson’s penchant for dynamic variation.