Oregon Music News

Dave Douglas (left) at the Crystal. PJF photo by Fran Kaufman

A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight  

Never underestimate the sonic possibilities of interwoven brass. And what better close-out for this year’s Portland Jazz Festival than Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy?  

Two of the biggest sounds in American music are the tenor saxophone of Pharoah Sanders and the trumpet of Dave Douglas. We got them back to back. But I don’t think Douglas would mind the suggestion that, in the context of Brass Ecstasy, his sound is frequently gobbled up.  

The “Hot Time” was an interpolation in “Bowie,” the band’s tribute to Lester Bowie, who was both “out there” and a great lover of American vernacular. It was entirely fitting that this selection was the most purely New Orleans in the group’s repertoire.  

A reviewer’s job is generally made easier by the stellar performance of one or two members of a band. But every member of Ecstasy is amazing. It was as if drummer Nasheet Waits was tired of hearing about Justin Faulker, the young whiz that drove the Mingus Big Band and the Pharoah Sanders group. Waits could certainly settle into the happy but rigid pattern of traditional brass band drumming, but he broke away from that to tear things up in a fashion that conformed to no given style.  

And it is amazing to think of a tuba as a pedal point, a drone, as well as an umpah bass line. At one point, Marcus Rojas sustained a note for so long you would think he was circular breathing. No one has cheeks big enough to circular breathe on a tuba.  

Vincent Chancey at the Crystal. PJF photo by Fran Kaufman

Trombonist Luis Bonilla is so fast that “slide” doesn’t do as a description of the movement. I’m not sure what does. And French horn is so difficult to play in tune that even Barry Tuckwell articulates deliberately. Not Vincent Chancey. He plays it like a trumpet, one redolent with the gorgeous timbre of French horn.  

The association one has with brass bands is exuberance and there was that in spades. But “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” was so richly mournful that the emotional range of this instrumentation was astonishingly extended.  

A friend who attended the Douglas conversation said the he doesn’t consider himself to be in possession of particularly impressive chops. If that’s true, neither does Raphael Mendez. But he keeps himself in an essentially supporting role with this ensemble, breaking loose to roar on only a few occasions.  

Another song with NOLA coloration was “Mr. Pitiful,” and there was nothing pitiful about it.  

One of Ecstasy’s tunes was dedicated to Don Cherry, who got an immense sound out of a bitsy “pocket” trumpet. It could be considered the tiny acorn for the Big Sound that engulfed the Crystal Ballroom last night. I can see the smile on Cherry’s face.