Frank Griffith Big Band
with Tina May
Holland Park Non-Stop
(Hep)
Oregon-born saxophonist Frank Griffith hasn’t just settled in the UK to give Brunel University students the benefit of his considerable jazz experience. He’s also brought with him a conviction that the golden age of the big band doesn’t need to be recreated. With arrangements that sing clearly and a mostly home-reared orchestra that swings crisply and surely, those big band days can simply be continued. That’s certainly what’s happening here as Griffith combines his admiration for Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra with an approach that’s both classic and fresh and a programme that follows the form of vintage big band radio broadcasts, complete with a guest singer, Tina May. Griffith’s own compositions, including the bluesy JCC and the waltzing Holland Park, are classy and played with relaxed exactness. But for the ultimate then-is-now experience, try Shine, a 1920s piece that sounds newly minted thanks to Griffith’s masterly and at times mischievous clarinet playing.
Rob Adams
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