Jazz in July
Benny, Basie and Bucky
92nd Street Y, NYC, July 30, 2015
Reviewed by Marilyn Lester for Cabaret Scenes
Benny Goodman, William “Count” Basie and living guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli were gloriously at the center of this final Jazz in July program. Artistic Director/pianist Bill Charlap and seven more swinging cats rocked the house in the style of Goodman’s small groups and Basie’s All American Rhythm Section. Pizzarelli and reed man Ken Peplowski (clarinet and tenor sax) actually played with Goodman, while Dennis Mackrel was a Basie band drummer. Trumpeter Randy Sandke, vibraphonist Joe Locke and bassist Jay Leonhart rounded out the group.
From the outset, Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump,” Goodman/ James Mundy/Charlie Christian’s “Airmail Special,” and the jazz standard “Avalon” set the tone for virtuosic performances within a highly disciplined unit. From there, the octet changed form as the music demanded. The Act One closer, “Honeysuckle Rose,” for instance, featured a four-man rhythm section and allowed Charlap to demonstrate his consummate pianistic chops. (He also amazed later, as his fingers flew through “All Through the Night.”)
Vocals were Sandy Stewart (Charlap’s mother) who once toured with Goodman. As a mature singer, she has the wisdom to know the territory of her voice.
Her phrasing is impeccable and the vibrato well-controlled. “By Myself” and “If I Had You” got her easily into her stride. “It Had to Be You” with Pizzarelli (and a bit of Sandke’s trumpet) was sublime, with Stewart putting across the lyric with intense feeling and total authority. Pizzarelli’s accompaniment, and his later solo turn on “Goodbye,” Goodman’s theme song, highlighted the 89-year-old master’s dexterity and proved his musical chops ever-supreme.
During the evening, each musician shined magically, but the big-sound finale, “Sing, Sing, Sing,” with its Krupa drum solo particularly let Mackrel sparkle. In sum, Charlap’s own quote about Benny and Basie applies to his own men: they swung with grace and intensity.
