By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
I didn’t go to Friday’s Toledo Jazz Orchestra concert intending to write about it. I went to hear some trombone playing, and I got more than I hoped for. This was a night that demanded to be documented.
The jazz orchestra was bringing in a special guest, Toledo Symphony Orchestra music director Alain Trudel who started his musical life as a trombonist.
Trudel has maintained parallel careers as a conductor and as a trombonist nonpareil. By the way, he also composes.
Long before his arrival in Toledo two years ago, his recording of music for trombone and organ had a treasured place in my music collection.
And though his discography is dominated by classical work — there is a jazz session now on my must have list — his roots are in jazz. He got his start at age 12 in a brass band for kids in his native Montreal playing pop and jazz tunes. A few years later when he auditioned to take lessons at the conservatory, he played the jazz standard “Misty”— he didn’t know any classical music.
That spirit of street music still resonates in his soul. His command of the idiom was as strong as his command of his horn, and that’s saying a lot. He is one of the world’s great trombonists, regardless of the genre.
And does he love to play. Whether on the podium in front of the TSO or out front on the TJO with his trombone, he seems barely able to control his joy.
TJO Music Director Ron Kischuk, himself a fine trombonist, shaped the entire concert around the instrument’s tradition.
After an up tempo romp through “Avalon” with a torrid solo from lead trumpeter Mike Williams, the entire TJO trombone section got a chance to shine on “Sunny Side of the Street.”
Scott Rogers, Dan Saygers, Phil Smith and Edward Gooch deftly maneuvered through a labyrinthine ensemble section, before each got a chance to solo.
Then it was time to introduce the guest. Trudel opened with “Flight of the Bumblebee,” a nod to the classical realm and his virtuosity. Another novelty was band member Russ Miller’s Latin jazz take on Leroy Anderson’s “Bugler’s Holiday” with Trudel, Rogers and Kischuk delivering licks that interlocked like puzzle pieces in a series of humorous exchanges.
Kischuk and Trudel evoked the great trombone duo of J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding with “It’s Alright with Me” on which Kischuk played trombonium. He actually wrested music from the valved horn suited only for marching bands. (J.J. and Kai used the horn as a way of tossing a bone to King Instruments, their sponsor.)
Trudel summoned the ghost of Al Grey with a plunger-muted “Makin’ Whoopee,” and Kischuk paid tribute to bass trombonist and studio legend George Roberts with “I Thought about You.”
When Sinatra recorded that song, Roberts was in the band, as he always was when Sinatra required a bass trombone.
Trudel was perfectly comfortable no matter the setting. The highlights came on a couple ballads, one late in the first set, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” and then, just before the closing “Bill Bailey,” Trudel inserted a version of “Goodbye,” the old Benny Goodman theme.
He dedicated it to Richard “Dick” Anderson, a local arts supporter, who had just passed away. Trudel said that Anderson had become a great friend.
On both ballads, Trudel took long cadenzas that demonstrated his absolute control of the horn. He flowed smoothly from the lowest pedal tones up into the stratosphere. The way he almost casually slipped in a few multiphonics was stunning. This technique allows a trombonist to play chords by singing one note while playing another with a third emerging from the overtones. He wasn’t showing off. Those chords were what the music demanded at the time.
Trudel’s solos showed his compositional bent.
For all the focus on trombones, the concert had another star. Pianist Bill Meyer was recruited that day to fill in for the band’s regular pianist who was ailing.
With no more than a sound check to acquaint himself with the charts, Meyer came through, working hand-in-glove with rhythm section mates Jeff Halsey on bass and Dan Maslanka on drums.
His long introductory two-fisted solos on “Blue Monk” and the closing “Bill Bailey” were highlights that got me to contemplating heading up north to see him in his Detroit stomping grounds.
He was part of what made this night so memorable, and worth writing about.
For those who missed this show or like me are wanting more, Trudel is expected to get his horn out to mix it up with contemporary jazz vocalist and trombonist Audrey Logan, also an exuberant performer, when she performs with the Toledo Symphony on March 21. That should be yet another memorable night.
