Barone Arranges a Melodic Evening

It’s very likely that at some point in the future, enterprising musicologists are going to discover a treasure trove of largely unknown music from the 20th and 21st centuries. They will marvel at the quality and creativity of what they uncover and be baffled by the fact that it was so rarely heard at the time it was written.

What music is that? The music that has been written and arranged for rehearsal bands, Monday night bands and, at times, for the sheer love of composing big band music.

The performance by trombonist Mike Barone and an all-star collection of Los Angeles players at the Jazz Bakery on Monday night was a case in point. Well-crafted and imaginative, his arrangements and compositions were consistently intriguing.

An original, “Grungy Bungee,” combined a perky melodic theme with colorful woodwind textures and piquant harmonic dissonance. A version of J.J. Johnson’s “Lament” used shimmering flutes and clarinets to underline Barone’s trombone solo. And his takes on a pair of standards, “How Deep Is the Ocean?” and “As Time Goes By,” positioned both the familiar tunes in novel settings, the former with an undercurrent of Latin rhythm, the latter amid lush blocks of orchestral sound.

How often will this engaging music be heard? Probably rarely. Like others who are drawn to writing for big jazz bands, Barone can only pick up intermittent performance opportunities. This, despite the fact that the personnel usually includes A-list musicians. Monday night’s aggregation, for example, included stellar efforts from, among numerous others, tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, alto saxophonist Bill Perkins and trumpeter Ron King.

What those future musicologists will realize, however, is that the big band instrumentation typified by Barone’s band represents, in effect, the symphony orchestra of the 20th century.

Its inherently balanced elements--a trumpet section, a trombone section, a saxophone section and a rhythm section, sometimes playing in tandem, sometimes independently--possess an almost limitless potential for musical expression.

At its peak, it served as a powerful voice for Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Sy Oliver, Quincy Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Gil Evans and dozens of other gifted writers.

Even today, despite the dominance of guitars, synthesizers and musical electronica in general, it is an instrumentation that persistently appeals to musicians and composers.

Although big jazz bands like the Barone unit are now largely relegated to the fringe areas of performance, they continue to stimulate a body of work that one day will receive the acknowledgment it deserves.