JAZZ REVIEWS : Terry Gibbs’ Big Band Turns Disneyland Into Dreamland

There aren’t many bands that can deliver exactly the same repertoire they offered 30 years ago and still sound fresh, hearty and current. The Terry Gibbs Dream Band is one of those magic few.

Closing out a far-too-brief two-nighter Saturday at Disneyland, the veteran vibist led his potent 17-piece ensemble through crackling arrangements that were crafted for him between 1959 and 1963 when his unit was known as the Exciting Terry Gibbs Big Band and was heard in several Los Angeles-area nightspots.

The band ceased performing in 1963 and re-emerged in 1986 when its recordings started being reissued on the Contemporary label. But the group appears only infrequently; its last engagement had been at Disneyland in 1990.

During the second and third sets on the Carnation Plaza Gardens stage Saturday, the musicians--several of whom played with Gibbs in the ‘50s and ‘60s--made it clear that the ensemble’s original name had been well chosen. Looking around the crowd, it was hard to find a face that appeared unmoved by the music, or a body that stood still.

Though they were playing primarily for the dancers who packed the floor, and therefore worked at tempos ranging only from slow to medium fast, 67-year-old Gibbs and his crew were in no way inhibited from creating a rousing swing feeling.

Indeed, one of the highlights was an Al Cohn arrangement of “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” taken at a slow, gritty pace. The rendition featured ensemble sections based on simple figures that Cohn orchestrated into gleaming walls of sound so exhilarating that one wanted to stand up and shout (as Charles Mingus said he did when he first heard Duke Ellington).

Gibbs’ band was all-star, to be sure. Among the members: saxophonists Med Flory (who arranged the third set’s vibrant closer, “Flying Home”) Joe Romano and Bob Efford, trombonists Randy Aldcroft and Bob Enevoldsen, and trumpeters Jack Sheldon and Bob Summers, all shored impressively by the dynamo rhythm team of Lou Levy on piano, Andy Simpkins on bass and Peter Donald on drums.

The stuff the band played was equally first class--and one knew Gibbs knew it, as he stood in front of his men, smiling, listening to these remarkable arrangements. Bill Holman was responsible for several of the best pieces, among them “Ja- Da.” Gibbs soloed, mixing pithy, punchy passages with longer, swirling strands of notes. Then the ensemble took over, followed by a massive-sounding section of solos from the saxes.

Another gem was “Evil Eyes,” a simple blues theme that became a platform for solos by Efford--whose expansive tenor sound evoked aural images of such late giants as Paul Gonsalves and Gene Ammons--and Aldcroft, and a particularly beseeching, moaning Flory.

Gibbs, very generous with the solo space, brought Sheldon down front for a spotlight. The trumpeter-singer turned in a captivating vocal version of “There Will Never Be Another You,” also arranged by Holman and taken at an uncharacteristic slow tempo that had “head-shaking groove” written all over it. Behind Sheldon’s glimmering singing, the saxes added fills that shone like the sky at sunset.

The only drawback was that the gig was over in two days. Gibbs should make an effort to secure more engagements for this ace band. It needs to be heard.