Burnishing big bands’ tradition

Frankie Capp is an idealist. At a time when the big jazz band is viewed by many as a musical dinosaur, he continues to insist on its undiminished vitality.

Capp’s band, the Juggernaut, was formed in 1975, in partnership with the late pianist Nat Pierce. And in the ensuing decades the Juggernaut -- with varying personnel -- has repeatedly made a case for his premise that the music of such classic large ensembles as the Count Basie Orchestra and their numerous all-star arrangers and composers is at least as worthy of rehearing as is the music of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms.

On Saturday night at the Jazz Bakery, Capp and the Juggernaut -- performing as part of the venue’s weeklong celebration of big band jazz -- offered a pair of sets displaying the appeals of visceral, massed instrumental power contrasted with the inventive improvising of a wide array of individual soloists.

Much of the music came from the Basie repertoire of the ‘50s -- memorable orchestrations of tunes such as “April in Paris” “All of Me” and “I Remember Clifford,” and classic originals such as “Lil’ Darling,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and “Shiny Stockings.” Interspersed with the instrumentals, singer Pat Tuzzolino applied his Frank Sinatra- inspired style to a group of standards including “Night and Day,” “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” and “Mack the Knife.”

The good intentions of Capp as well his players more than compensated for the occasional miscues -- especially in the Tuzzolino set, when the musicians were literally sight-reading the charts. And, in this case, good intentions were at the heart of the evening.

There’s no question that the music could have been performed more precisely, with considerably more rhythmic lift. But doing it at all was almost as important as doing it well (and it was, for the most part, done exceedingly well). Because Capp is correct in his efforts to keep the big band instrumentation -- the symphony orchestra of American jazz and pop -- alive and well, a living repertory of the music that served as the soundtrack for much of the 20th century.