Talented Mingus Big Band Honors Its Gifted Namesake With Energy and Spontaneity

Charles Mingus’ great strength as a composer was his ability to find logic in chaos, to create musical structures that were solid enough to allow musicians to improvise in total freedom.

One of the sources of that strength was his sheer presence as a leader, a powerful organizing force that was overwhelmingly intimidating to some players, a fountain of inspiration to others.

So the real question, when the Mingus Big Band arrived at Veterans Wadsworth Theater Saturday night was this: Could this ensemble--a collection of solid New York musicians who have been working together weekly since 1991--perform Mingus’ thorny music with the feeling of energy and spontaneity that were an intrinsic element in his own performances? (He died in 1979 from the complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.)

The answer, happily, was very well indeed. At a time when other New York bands such as the Wynton Marsalis Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Jon Faddis-led Carnegie Hall are enjoying high visibility, the Mingus Big Band has toiled with considerably less public awareness. Yet this ensemble has something that the Lincoln Center and the Carnegie Hall bands can generate only intermittently--a sense of collective, let’s-all-join-in creativity that reaches far beyond the written notes. More, they have a “sound,” an instantly identifiable timbral quality, and it is, amazingly, a Mingus sound.

The individual players without exception were superb, and their moments of excellence far too numerous to list in detail. But, among the high points in a program that included such Mingus classics as “Nostalgia in Times Square,” “E’s Flat, Ah’s Flat Too,” “Diane” and “Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife”: a long, stirring, two-trumpet exchange between Randy Brecker and Alex Sipiagin; a single, gripping solo from emerging young tenor saxophone star Mark Shim; baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber’s consistently gutsy, hard-driving improvisations; the breezy, articulate soloing of trumpeter Philip Harper and trombonist Robin Eubanks; a brilliant, horn-scouring series of choruses from John Handy; trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy’s humorous between-tune announcements; the musicality, leadership and soloing of alto saxophonist Steve Slagle; and the surging, Mingus-styled rhythm work of bassist Andy McKee, drummer Adam Cruz and pianist Kenny Drew Jr.

At the concert’s intermission, Sue Mingus, the bassist-composer’s widow, noted that she had once asked Mingus about the idea of reincarnation, and how he expected he might return. “He just looked at me,” she recalled, “and said, ‘I’m never going to leave.’ ” And there was no doubt that, in an almost palpable way, his musical presence affected every note that was played in this emotionally and musically compelling program of large group jazz.