High school jazz band is one of the most beneficial activities any musician can enter. Jazz band teaches style, a sense of time and rhythm, and most of all, music theory. Competitive jazz bands are a part of all good music programs and showcase the school's top musicians. Some composers make a living writing charts for these high school jazz bands looking to dominate their respected areas. Victor Lopez is a huge Latin composer of the times and turns out originals as well as arrangements. However, Victor Lopez charts are usually fairly simple. If a high school jazz band is playing a Gordon Goodwin chart, however, that is a sign that this band has some form of talent. Gordon Goodwin composes and arranges, but most of his hardest charts were composed for his own big band and decided to sell the scores for those compositions. XXL showcases some of his best compositions to date.
The Big Phat Band is a versatile band full of energy. Their music ranges from straight up swing to Latin to funk to classical saxophone compositions. Gordon Goodwin pulls in many featured artists including Sonny Rollins and Brian McKnight. However, the best songs are the ones where it is strictly the Big Phat Band. The members of the band are not meant to be backup players for someone else, they are meant to rip people’s faces off with their intense sound. All the horn work on this album is absolute perfection. The dynamics, the articulation, and all of the style match up perfectly. Rick Shaw lays down solid grooves and solid time on whichever bass he chooses to use, upright or electric. The percussionists never stand out as anything spectacular, but they play and fill where needed. However, as it seems Gordon Goodwin composed a band of entirely lead players who just want to blast on their instruments, the best part of most songs are the solos. The soloists put everything they have into the solo, whether it is a tasteful, emotional solo in a ballad or a blisteringly high trumpet solo in an upbeat, energetic song, every solo is excellent.
The best standout on the album, Hunting Wabbits, showcases the band in sections. The song opens with the saxophone section, Gordon Goodwin featured on soprano. This song won my jazz band's saxophone section the best saxophones in every competition we went to. The song, as the title would suggest, is a reference to the old cartoons, most noticeably Looney Tunes. The main melody is bouncy, frantic, and just cartoon-like. The sax section goes through the melody once and then another time in a different key. After a short transition period, the trombones come in and play a variation on the melody. The bass trombone keeps the tempo up excellently, while the lead trombone nails quite a few high Cs. After the trombones, the trumpets and rhythm section enter. The melody switches off from the saxes and trumpets. After going through the melody once, the trumpets add a jazzy lick overtop of the main melody, showing that finally, the song is stepping out of its classical sound.
Suddenly, the song enters full out swing and a trombone solo. The trombone plays a much laid back solo, yet still maintaining energy which grows throughout. After a few choruses, the song reverts back and the tenor sax takes a solo. The sax, just as the trombone, starts extremely laid back. However, by the second chorus, the saxophonist really starts to pick up steam and closes the solo strong. The second section transitions out of the swing with a rhythm section breakdown. As time goes on, more and more instruments layer on top. Finally, a held out chord ends the breakdown. The song then cycles through the circle of 4s with a 1, and (of 2), 4 pattern. Then the song picks up tempo and replays through the main instrumental melody at a blisteringly fast speed. The saxes close out the song just as they started.
The next standout, Horn of Puente, features the trumpet section for most of the time, and is in a laid back mambo feel. After a few times through the melody, the saxophones take a feature. They play extremely fast, and a flute is also heard overtop of the melody. The trumpets join in and play along with the fast sax stuff going on. A chord is held out and then the trumpets fall. The piano picks up the tempo with cool rhythmic samba comping. Someone screams "Puente!" and the song grooves in a much more uptempo Latin feel. The trumpets are once again featured. After a short melody, one of the trumpets takes a solo for the rest of the song. The solo is one of the best on the album. It takes a while for the solo to be full out, as the band enters breakdown sections frequently until about 3:50. The soloist slowly climbs up his range throughout the solo, playing excellent Latin licks throughout. By the end, he is reaching insanely high notes and slurring all over the range, showing his virtuosity even in the extreme register. The song changes key and forces the trumpet higher and higher. The song enters another tutti breakdown section. After one last modulation, the piano plays the rhythmic comping one last time and a huge trumpet hit closes the song.
The album also touches on funk, fusion, ballads, and any other form of jazz out there. Gordon Goodwin makes a jazz composition out of a Mozart sonata and pulls in a men's singing group to sing on It's All Right With Me. The variety on the album is fantastic as is all of the musicianship. The Big Phat Band serves as revitalization in big band music and shows that jazz is surely not a dead genre. There is still much to explore in the world of jazz and Gordon Goodwin is a key pioneer in this age.
Recommended Tracks
High Maintenance
Hunting Wabbits
Horn of Puente
The Jazz Police
