Big band, and a ‘Hank’ for Eastwood

The Henry Mancini Institute’s seventh-annual session wound up in grand fashion Friday and Saturday with a pair of programs spanning the organization’s far-reaching interests in music education.

Large ensemble jazz was on display in Friday’s HMI Big Band event at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall via the arrangements and compositions of Bob Mintzer and Bill Holman.

There was a striking contrast between the two. Mintzer’s charts, from his “Homage to Count Basie” album, were straight-ahead examples of the familiar, in-the-pocket Basie swing. Holman’s works, from his ‘50s arrangement of “Just Friends” to a recent take on Thelonious Monk’s “Friday the 13th,” overflowed with his characteristic blend of sinuous contrapuntal melody lines and sudden bursts of massive sound.

Despite the program’s broad stylistic demands, the big band’s young players handled the music with accuracy and convincing rhythmic drive. Among a covey of fine young soloists, the most outstanding work came from alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon. In Saturday night’s Mancini Musicale at Royce Hall, the full HMI Orchestra was the centerpiece for a program emphasizing the institute’s strong ties to film music and the Los Angeles celebrity community.

Most of the music was provided by film composers -- Jorge Calandrelli, Bruce Broughton and, appropriately, Mancini. Calandrelli’s “Trumpet Escapade in D minor” showcased trumpeter Arturo Sandoval’s brilliant instrumental eclecticism in a work calling for virtuosic performances on B-flat trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn and timbales. Two movements from Broughton’s “Concerto for Tuba” featured the remarkable young tuba artist Carolyn Jantsch. Both pieces, as well as an original work by student composer Sherisse Rodgers, were performed by the orchestra with a collective elan rare in an ensemble in existence for less than a month.

The celebrity aspect of the evening focused on the benefit program’s honoree, Clint Eastwood, who received the “Hank” award, presented by Quincy Jones. Enhancing the tribute, Lennie Niehaus conducted selections from Eastwood films -- peaking with James Moody playing “Parker’s Mood” and tenor saxophonists James Carter and Pete Christlieb battling through “Lester Leaps In.”

Diana Krall offered a svelte rendering of “Why Should I Care,” the Eastwood-penned song from “True Crime,” before quixotically reaching beyond her stylistic comfort level with a Bonnie Raitt blues number.

Finally, closing the entertaining program, there was the traditional romp through Mancini’s “Peter Gunn,” spectacularly driven by the colorful electric bass antics of Abe Laboriel Sr.