Luckman Pays Tribute to Mingus

Every time the Luckman Jazz Orchestra offers one of its far too rare performances, the first question that comes to mind is why this fine ensemble doesn’t have a much longer performance schedule. Granted, costs can be high for appearances by a 16-piece musical organization, but it’s hard to believe that in a community as economically viable and as culturally aware as Los Angeles that funding--and/or sponsor support--can’t be found for a rainbow aggregation of superb jazz artists.

And that question was even more present Saturday night at Cal State L.A.’s attractive Luckman Fine Arts Complex in a performance titled “Mainly Mingus.” James Newton, the jazz orchestra’s conductor, led the ensemble in a superb tribute to Mingus (two days before the 80th anniversary of the bassist-composer’s birth) that provided, in many respects, a particularly convincing link to the original music. Mingus has begun to receive the recognition he deserves as a major jazz composer in the decades since his death in 1979. And ensembles such as the Mingus Big Band have begun to position many of his works as important standards in the jazz repertoire.

The Luckman orchestra’s presentation, however, was more intriguing on several levels. The first was Newton’s choice of material via a program that touched on many of Mingus’ far-ranging interests: his fascination with Ellington in “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love”; his attraction to Latin rhythms in “Tijuana Gift Shop” (Mingus was born in Nogales, Ariz.); his gospel roots “Ecclusiastics”; and the lyricism that was at the heart of all his music, especially well displayed in “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” (a tribute to legendary saxophonist Lester Young).

Equally important was the loose, hard-swinging qualities of the performance. And the occasional inaccuracies that turned up were, ironically, more reminiscent of the spontaneous, erratic, but always enthusiastic qualities of many of the original Mingus performances.

Add to that some stunning solo work from a long list of players, with special high points provided by trumpeters Carl Saunders and Snooky Young, trombonist George McMullen, saxophonists Ann Patterson, Herman Riley and Keith Fiddmont and the superb rhythm section of Lanny Hartley, piano, Jeff Littleton, bass and Ndugo Chancler, drums.

Best was the improvisatory manner in which Newton brought everything together--most notably in an epic rendering of Mingus’ “Don’t Be Afraid, the Clown’s Afraid, Too,” filled with Newton-conducted bursts of sound from the ensemble and a melange of musical elements rushing against each other in a manner reminiscent of Charles Ives. Mingus, one suspects, would have loved it.