JAZZ REVIEW : Horn-Playing Brothers Hit Some High Notes

Relations between brothers can be complex. Sibling rivalry generates tension, but this can be offset by love and the unspoken rapport that develops between two people with deep familial ties.

These emotional extremes and many nuances in between come out in the music of the trumpet-playing Candoli brothers, two veterans of jazz who headlined at the Horton Grand Hotel last Friday and Saturday nights.

Between them, the Candolis count nearly 100 years of jazz experience. Both came up with the top Big Bands of the 1940s and later headed to Los Angeles, where they made a living as studio top guns--Conte has been a member of the “Tonight Show” band since 1968 and plays on the sound track of the upcoming Bette Midler movie, “For the Boys,” due in the fall; Pete has recorded with Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini and Peggy Lee, and he guests with the “Tonight Show” band from time to time.

If music is an extension of an artist’s personality, then you could read theirs like an open book of sheet music.

Pete, 67, is the older brother, the calming force, the one who takes a leadership role in guiding the music. His trumpet playing is more restrained, laid back, muted, calming. He trades his trumpet for the mellower fluegelhorn on some tunes.

Younger brother Conte, 63, on the other hand, is the renegade, the showboat, the one with the reputation for loving good times. His sound is brash and aggressive and cuts through a room like a bolt of lightning as if to say, “Hey, brother, that was OK, but look what I can do!”

An evening with the brothers is suffused with old-fashioned corn and just plain showboating. After particularly searing solos, the brothers give each other high fives. When Conte’s playing gets steamy, Pete pats his brother’s forehead with a hankie. Sometimes, he cups his hands and claps them in front of his mouth like a kid aping a seal. When Conte introduces the band (in this case, locals Rocky Cole on piano, Bob Magnusson on bass and Dave Barry on drums), he singles his brother out as “Mr. Al Hirt . . . and yours truly, Harry James!”

Friday night’s two sets consisted mostly of familiar jazz and popular standards including “Willow Weep for Me,” Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” the Ellington band signature “Caravan,” “I Should Care,” Tadd Dameron’s “Hothouse” and “I Can’t Get Started.”

The Candolis also tossed in John Coltrane’s “Equinox,” Freddie Grofe’s “On The Trail” (a hoof-clomping Western number that began with Pete’s braying horn) and a rousing blues of their own.

At their best, the brothers generate brassy electricity, their tightly intertwining horn lines spiraling around each other into space like a pair of dueling fireflies. But sometimes, their aggressive, showy attack overpowers tunes like “Willow Weep For Me” -- Conte, especially, can shatter the mood of serene tunes with his all-out, upper-register blasts.

Towards the end of the night, though, the Candolis hit a groove, and the pick-up band began to gel. Pete’s soft, slurry, tone achieved the right romantic mood on “I Can’t Get Started” and Conte continued in the same vein, keeping the histrionics to a minimum on his own muted solo.

Then local flutist Holly Hofmann joined the brothers on stage for a simple blues, and her presence seemed to exert a desirable, calming effect.

When she soloed, she revived the melody from “Hothouse” a few tunes earlier as the Candolis faced off behind her to deliver tight, contrapuntal lines. Magnusson picked up the “Hothouse” reference and wove it in and out of his own brilliant bass solo.

The up-tempo Kenny Dorham tune “Blue Bossa” capped the evening on a driving note. Hofmann coaxed sliding, sensuous solo lines from her flute as the brothers spurred her on with tandem accompaniment. Conte launched into his solo with a pair of characteristic twin blasts, while Pete’s solo unfolded more gradually, with delicate changes in volume and tone. The high point of the evening came as Hofmann and the Candolis blew up a three-way frenzy of improvised lines that collided and merged and ascended to a rousing peak.

This pair doesn’t need to prove anything now. The brothers have played on literally hundreds of albums, both as leaders and sideman. Yet the creative drive lives on. Conte Candoli’s next solo recording is due in August and features several of his own original tunes, plus a pair from former Chet Baker pianist Frank Strazzeri. In a record to be released this fall, the brothers will be featured in a live performance at a Chicago nightclub.