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The ABCs of
By Burl Burlingame
homegrown jazz
Star-BulletinTHE fourth Great Hawaiian Jazz Blowout this weekend -- Jackie Ward's annual fund-raiser for the Conductive Education Center of Hawaii for Cerebral Palsy Children -- features dozens of Hawaii's best jazz and blues artists, ranging from Sam Ahia to Chris Yeh and the whole alphabet in between.
And sometimes it'll seem like most of them are on the stage at the same time. One of the interesting recent developments in jazz is an old concept -- the big band. Groups such as the Honolulu Jazz Band, the Swingin' Tradewinds Jass Band and the Olliephonic Horns can't come to the gig in one car.
Where do they all come from? It isn't like big-band musicians are thick on the ground.
"They're lawyers, doctors, plumbers, teachers; all sorts," says Jack Morse, saxophonist in both the HJB and the STJB, and a lawyer when he's not wetting his reed. "These bands are coagulations of people who love the music."
"As for me, I was dragged in by Jack Morse," laughs fellow attorney and saxophonist Sanford Lung, now one of the Honolulu Jazz band's associate directors.
THE JAZZ BLOWOUT
Showtime: 2-10 p.m. Saturday; noon-8 p.m. Sunday
The roots of Hawaii's homegrown big bands was the Honolulu Community Concert Band, a volunteer organization devoted to sharing music with the public.
"A decade ago, we'd play swing, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Honolulu Jazz Band grew out of that," said Morse. "It's now completely evolved and separate. Big-band swing was always out there somewhere."
Unlike the free-form improvisations of cool jazz, the HJB members are historic preservationists, using Count Basie's or Duke Ellington's or Glenn Miller's original charts to recreate the sound.
"We've been building a library of charts. After seven-eight years, we have a couple of hundred," Morse said.
"Whenever we do public performances, the perennial favorites are classics like 'In the Mood,' so we're not going to mess with the stock charts," said Lung.
They don't find musicians, musicians find them.
"It's all word of mouth. We have an open rehearsal every Wednesday night in the Punahou band room and anyone is welcome to sit in," said Morse.
"If they can cut it, then they can do public performances," said Lung. "Most of our guys have been with us five years or more." If you're interested, call Lung at 521-6013.
While the Honolulu Jazz Band is devoted to swing, the Swingin' Tradewinds Jass Band plays Dixie, yet another offshoot of the family tree called jazz.
"The term 'jazz' is so all-inclusive, it means different things to different people," said Morse. "When you say 'big band,' people tend to think 'swing.' "
It's inevitable that most of the band members are over 40.
"The younger musicians don't know what the hell it is, sometimes," said Lung. "It's a bit more complex than typical pop music, and a greater challenge."
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