A Snazzy Silver Anniversary

During the Harvard Jazz Band's 25th anniversary celebration last weekend, band alumni as well as jazz luminaries converged on campus in an atmosphere that combined camaraderie with wistful remembrance.

The events ranged from informal jam sessions all weekend long to a special panel discussion on Saturday morning to a concert later that evening in Sanders Theater. The Saturday events featured professional musicians Fred Ho '79, Don Braden '85, Illinois Jacquet and Dwayne 'Cook' Broadnax.

Also among those present were a small group of alumni from the first Harvard Jazz Band. According to bass player Mark Schuster '74, the jazz band at Harvard actually started as an unofficial organization four years before director Tom Everett was hired. The band at that time was called the 'Prescott Sodality,' (named for the street their rehearsal space was on), and it was led by a student, David Archibald '71. Soon after Everett was hired, the Sunday and Monday Jazz Bands were formed and they have continued to this day.

"Oh, we were pitiful [back then]," said baritone sax alum Shep Rainey '74. "We had a good time, and as the evening wore on we'd usually have a few beers and get louder, not better."

Fortunately, Saturday night's concert started good and got better. The concert opened with the Sunday Jazz Band, who performed a sophisticated arrangement by longtime Harvard Jazz Band collaborator Jeff Friedman of the Thelonious Monk tune "Brilliant Corners." The Monday Band then took to the stage with a rousing performance of "Take The 'A' Train," replete with mean brass and take-no-prisoners attitude. The band played six more tunes, including two more in the Ellington/Strayhorn vein, "Star-Crossed Lovers" and "Cottontail," Wardell Gray's "Twisted," Charles Mingus' "Fables of Faubus" and two premieres.

The second half of the program began with baritone saxophonist Fred Ho fronting the band on his composition "Liberation Genesis." The piece was written with the support of a grant from the Office for the Arts (OFA) while Ho was an undergraduate.

"I think it's very important what the OFA does in terms of giving grants directly to students," said Ho after the concert. "So much of art in this society has been commodified simply to make money."

Ho, a former member of the Jazz Band, is tremendously active today as a performer, composer, writer and political activist, and his music blends jazz with folk music elements from Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Tenor saxophonist and recording artist Don Braden '85, also a Jazz Band alum, performed three tunes, including an arrangement commissioned by the OFA entitled "Landing Zone" and an arrangement of the Hank Mobley tune "Soul Station." The latter, which will appear on Braden's upcoming release for RCA/Victor entitled The Voice of the Saxophone, was performed by an all-Harvard Jazz Band Alumni 13-person "Octet." Outstanding solos by tenor player Anton Schwartz '89 and trumpet player Bob Merrill '81, as well as uplifting playing by the rhythm section, fully expressed the buoyant yet nostalgic atmosphere which characterized this reunion weekend.

The octet performance led perfectly into the entrance of legendary Louisiana-born tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet. Jacquet proceeded to steal the show with his quirky stage antics and easy-going humor. Walking over to his alto saxophone after putting down his tenor, he turned to confide with the audience, "The little one gets mad when I pick up the big one!" Jacquet, who was the Kayden Artist in Residence in 1983 at Harvard, performed four tunes with the Band: Jacquet's own "Robbin's Nest," as well as "Body and Soul," "Flyin' Home" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." This was his eighth visit to Harvard. While Jacquet held the audience in thrall with his simple, warm, lyrical solos, it was the sensitive accompaniment by the entire Monday Jazz Band as well as the solid playing of Jacquet's regular drummer "Cook" Bradnax that made for such a rich musical experience.

For some of the band members, however, the experience wasn't quite as easy-going as it may have been perceived in the audience. Andy Eggers '99, who played drums with Jacquet on "Robbin's Nest," described the experience as "totally nerve-racking." Bassist Gian Antonio Pangaro '99 agreed with Eggers' assessment and wished there had been "more time during the week to rehearse with the artists."

Despite these concerns, the concert Saturday evening was a success in that it under-scored the continuity of the Jazz Band's 25 years. As the undergraduate Jazz Bands performed on the stage of Sanders Theater for a near-capacity crowd teeming with band alumni of various ages, one could sense the implicit understanding linking those who had once played on the stage and those who now occupied it. Enthralled audience members seemed hardly to notice the passing of time during the three-hour long concert, aside from their fruitless squirming to find a semi-comfortable position on Sanders' cruel benches.

One important aim of the performances and events of the weekend was to offer tribute to the evolution of jazz education at Harvard. Tom Everett, director of bands at Harvard, was honored at various points in the concert for his 25-year-long dedication to the Jazz Band. Everett received, among other things, an engraved dish from the OFA, a letter from jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson affectionately describing him as being "from another planet" and heartfelt thanks and appreciation from band alumni.