Reliving a Historic Big-Band Moment

Back in 1959, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs’ Dream Band, which plays Labor Day weekend at the West Coast Jazz Party in Irvine, made an entry into Hollywood history. Gibbs, then a recent New York transplant, moved a big band into the Seville club on Santa Monica Boulevard and created a small sensation among Hollywood club hangers of the time.

“There were no big bands left then,” says the 74-year-old Gibbs. “Just Count Basie and some others. The music business had completely changed. But what did I care? I had to do it.”

Gibbs, who had made a splash with Woody Herman in the late ‘40s and with Benny Goodman in the early ‘50s, had recorded a big-band date in New York for the Mercury label but wasn’t happy with the results. “But when I got out here and heard all the great players in Bill Holman’s rehearsal band and Med Flory’s rehearsal band, I wanted to try it again.”

His dream was simple. “Take tunes from six of the great bandleaders--Basie, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman--and let these great arrangers like Bill Holman, Marty Paich, Manny Albam, Bob Brookmeyer [and] Med Flory do something with them.”

Gibbs says he started playing the club on Tuesday nights in April with the quintet of trumpeter Conte Candoli, pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Stan Levy. But when union restrictions cut into studio rehearsal for the big band he intended to record (rules allowed for club date rehearsals but not record date rehearsals), Gibbs decided to bring the 15-piece ensemble into the Seville.

“I wasn’t a local attraction at that point,” Gibbs recalls. “Nobody knew me and we expected to see about 20 people in the club. But some movie columnists recommended me. And Steve Allen [Gibbs was later music director for Allen’s band] gave me a plug on television. And by the time we went on, the club was packed, all the musicians in town were there, Fred MacMurray was there, Ginger Rogers was there. All the movie stars began coming in.”

The band moved around a bit over the next couple of years, playing the Cloister (formerly the Macambo Club) on Sunset Boulevard and saxophonist Jimmie Maddin’s Sundown Club (later renamed the Summit) on Sunset.

Contemporary Records has issued five volumes of recordings from that era; three are still in print. “Volume 5: The Big Cat” was recorded live at the Summit.

Many of the same musicians from those bands will be playing this 40th anniversary concert, including Candoli, trombonist Bob Enevoldsen, saxophonists Flory and Jack Nimitz and pianist Lou Levy. Other standouts in the group include trumpeters Frank Szabo and Carl Saunders, both of whom have been with the band for 10 years, and saxophonists Pete Christlieb and Lanny Morgan, who have been in the band since 1968. Frank Capp, who leads his own big band at the event, is the drummer (Mel Lewis was the band’s original drummer).

“The policy is the same,” Gibbs explains. “We have a lot of fun on the bandstand. When we first started playing at the Seville, I told the guys there was one rule. No drinking off the bandstand. If they wanted to drink, they had to do it on the bandstand. That made for a lot of clowning around. And nobody else in the club could get a drink.”

The word “Dream” in the band’s name refers not only to the musicians, says Gibbs, but also to the arrangements. “We have some of the most beautiful arrangements,” he marvels, “written just for me and this band. We may have fun when we play, but we’re very serious about the music.”

*

Straight Ahead: The Gibbs band will close the three-day West Coast Jazz Party, now in its fifth year, to be held at the Irvine Marriott over the Labor Day weekend. The party, which has been close to selling out its last two years, has a simple philosophy: “Right down the middle and straight ahead.”

“If you don’t recognize most of the songs or you can’t tap your foot to them, then we didn’t do our job,” Jazz Party co-founder Joe Rothman says.

The party, which has concentrated on jam sessions in past years, brings in more working bands this year, including those of drummer Jeff Hamilton, flutist Holly Hofmann and the trios of pianists Pete Jolly, Paul Smith and Gerald Wiggins. Headliners include organist Jack McDuff and saxophonist Red Holloway next Friday, the Frank Capp Juggernaut and the three tenors of Harry Allen, Scott Hamilton and Ken Peplowski on Sept. 4, and Gibbs’ Dream Band on Sept. 5. During each session, headliners and some 20 other musicians will rotate through the traditional mix-and-match jam sessions. A Sunday brunch jazz cruise on Newport Bay is also scheduled. Information: (949) 724-3602.

*

Barry’s Back: Noted pianist, bebop authority and educator Barry Harris is in town from New York this weekend. He’ll team with drummer Billy Higgins at the World Stage in Leimert Park tonight, beginning at 9:45 p.m., then hold a clinic for musicians of all ages Saturday at the same venue, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Information: (323) 293-2451.

*

Trad Jazz: The fourth annual Sweet & Hot Jazz Festival, that celebration of classic and Dixieland jazz, will be held Sept. 3 through Sept. 6, with appearances from the Jack Sheldon Orchestra, saxophonist Tommy Newsom, the Harry James Orchestra directed by Art DePew, clarinetist Abe Most, the Dick Carey Tuesday Night Band, the Creole Bells from Australia, and, from Japan, Dixieland band Yoshio Toyama & the Saints. Dozens of other bands and individuals are also scheduled. Information: Ask for the jazz office at (310) 641-5700.

*

Mancini Institute: The last of the Henry Mancini Institute’s free summer concerts is tonight at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, 8 p.m. (pre-concert lecture begins at 7 p.m.), and features the Henry Mancini Big Band under the direction of Gerald Wilson. On Saturday, the Mancini Institute’s sponsoring organization, the American Jazz Philharmonic, holds its 19th annual fund-raiser “Garden Musicale” at the Playboy Mansion. The Mancini Institute Orchestra will appear with guest vocalists Dave Frishberg and Sue Raney and saxophonist Tom Scott. Tickets are $200 and up. Proceeds benefit the Mancini Institute’s educational programs. Information on both events: (310) 845-1900.