JAZZ REVIEW : Buoyant Big Band at Tango

The final concert in Diane Varga’s series of big-band nights at the Moonlight Tango in Sherman Oaks was conducted by pianist-arranger Tom Garvin under unexpectedly tragic conditions.

During the first set Garvin announced that Varga, who has done so much to promote jazz in the Southland, lay mortally ill at a North Hollywood hospital. Dedicating the set to her, he played a series of his own charts, including several well-crafted originals.

Varga died Wednesday morning.

“Mitch” was a particularly attractive Garvin work, framing the alto sax of Ray Reed and the tenor of Tommy Peterson. “Apple a Day” featured Jack Nimitz on baritone. The superlative drummer Harold Mason, reading some difficult music, did a consistent job of uplifting this generally buoyant band.

Mike Campbell, the first of Garvin’s two vocalists, simply doesn’t look the part of a hip jazz singer. Bald, bearded and bespectacled, he contradicted the image with a splendid “Jeannine” and his own song, “I Love You in 3/4 Time.”

Paula Kelly, reviewed here recently at the Gardenia, was hindered somewhat by the cramped conditions on the bandstand, but with Garvin’s arrangements of “Old Devil Moon” and “My Foolish Heart,” she showed how well she works in a big-band setting.