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Reviews
"Lots of sheer fun and first-rate playing. This is an album that belongs in the Christmas stocking of every big band fan."
Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
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"Gordon Goodwin has captured the big band sound and made it alive and heard as never before in a modern contemporary manner."
Digital Audio Guide
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"Hellzapoppin' swing...jaw-dropping, to say the least...themusic literally dances in front of your eyes."
Sean Daly, JazzTimes
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"A superb band playing intricate and endlessly appealing music"
John Killoch, Mainly Big Bands
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"Goodwin and his Big Phat murderers row have won the pennant and the Series with this album."
Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
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L.A. JAZZ SCENE
L.A.’s ONLY JAZZ PAPER
July 2002
Issue No. 179
THE SCENE
By Ken Jennings
GORDON GOODWIN’S BIG PHAT BAND WITH GUEST PERFORMER PETER ERSKINE
There were many great bands at this year’s Playboy Jazz in Central Park at the Summer Fest in Pasadena, but the highlight had to be Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band with special guest performer Peter Erskine on drums. The band used standard big band fare, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxes and a rhythm section, but the similarities with most bands stopped there. This band’s tightness was unparalleled. The band figures were played with precision and the dynamics were superb. These musical principles were exquisitely executed, not only in each phrase but in each measure. I’m sure this was possible, not only because of outstanding musicianship, but due to some long rehearsals.
Jazz solos were expectedly outstanding. Andy Martin on trombone and brother Stan on trumpet led jazz soloists on brass. Eric Marienthal on lead alto, Jeff Driskill on clarinet and Brian Scanlon on tenor led the reed soloists. Wayne Bergeron played lead trumpet with some high note extravaganza on an exciting latin arrangement. Grant Geissman on guitar was featured, as was leader Goodwin, playing both piano and soprano sax.
Drummer Erskine, with little or no rehearsal, slam-dunked the imposing arrangements. From the first number, “Sing Sang Sung,” Goodwin’s modern and inventive version of “Sing Sing Sing,” Erskine’s tom-tom solo set the excitement for the rest of the band’s presentation. “Samba del Gringo” was an up-tempo samba as was “Mueve Los Huesos” (“Shake Your Bones”). The latter featured a three-minute drum battle between Erskine and percussionist Luis Conte. He was equally comfortable on the slow Basie styled “What Sammy Said” to the harmonically interesting composition, “Game of Inches.” As with the rest of the ensemble, Erskine played with tremendous energy while staying musical. I cannot say enough about the performance of this great drummer.
The band closed with the uptemop, “Swingin’ For The Fences.” This is the title song on their current Grammy-nominated CD, and Goodwin promised a new CD to be released soon. At the end of their set, the large audience shouted for more. I hope we don’t have to wait long to hear, and see, this great band in a repeat in-person performance.
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Los Angeles Times
Wednesday October 24, 2001
Calendar – Arts and Entertainment
Big Phat Success at Jazz Bakery
Jazz Review
By DON HECKMAN
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Mondays have traditionally been big-band nights at many jazz clubs. The reasons are obvious: It’s usually an off night in terms of employment for most players; club owners like the idea of having a high-visibility attraction for a traditionally low-attendance evening; and musicians are willing to show up for the pleasure of playing in a large ensemble (not for the big bucks, because, sadly, the payment is minimal).
Mondays haven’t quite become big-band night at the Jazz Bakery yet, but the scheduling at the venue is moving in that direction. This week’s appearance by Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band was the third large ensemble to show up this month (with three more scheduled for November), and the room was packed – a considerable improvement over the typical Monday night turnout.
What the crowd heard was an 18-piece collection of some of the Southland’s finest players, romping through Goodwin’s well-crafted compositions and arrangements with a combination of crisp accuracy and fiery soloing from, among others, trumpeters Dennis Farias and Bob Summers, saxophonists Jeff Driskill and Eric Marienthal and drummer Bernie Dresel. Carmen Carter added a few vocals.
Goodwin is a veteran composer for films and television – including pictures such as “Gone in 60 Seconds,” and television shows such as “Now and Again” and “Sisters” – winning three Emmys along the way. The communicative skills required for such writing were amply present in his charts, enhancing his solidly swinging melodic lines and supercharged rhythm passages.
A tune such as “Count Bubba,” for example, had all the appealing qualities of a hard-driving big-band number. But Goodwin enlivened its impact by including a passage in which the band, building from the saxophone section, ripped through a wide-open passage, unaccompanied by rhythm, expanding to a fervently climactic ending.
Goodwin and Big Phat Band’s album “Swingin’ For The Fences” (Silverline) is the best-selling jazz item in the new DVD 5.1 surround-sound format. And it’s not hard to understand their success. Both live and in surround-sound, their music provides potent testimony to the sheer exhilaration of big-band jazz.
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THE Hollywood REPORTER
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Concert Review
Daniels, Goodwin
The Jazz Bakery, Culver City
Monday, March 25
By Tony Gieske
This night had the kick of a double shot of hard liquor, with the Grammy-winning Eddie Daniels punching out some top-of-the-line clarinet work and the Grammy-nominated Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band roaring through some splendid arrangements on their own as well as in support of headliner Daniels.
The most exciting number was “Cherokee,” a nice, fresh chart that featured Daniels leading the sax section on some fast-moving passages that might have been written by the Ellington clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton. Of course, he contributed some pithy bebop solos of an advanced harmonic nature, as expected, with a strong and nimble sound to match that of the band.
This was quite a swinging band, too, with Wayne Bergeron and Stan Martin in the trumpet section and Andy Martin and Alex Iles among the trombones. These 17 men speak with one voice, and a powerful voice it is – firm, hard-muscled and deep.
Goodwin, a film composer whose conducting and orchestration credits include “Remember the Titans,” “ConAir” and “Armageddon,” brings his band out on a night like this mainly to concretize for the joy of it, and the industrious Daniels shared his attitude. This proved infectious as far as the packed house was concerned.
Daniels is a virtuoso who attended Juilliard and works with various symphony orchestras, a practice that he alluded to with a swing version of a sweet melody by Mozart, first played deadpan and then syncopated. The band took his hand in a firm, brotherly grip as they danced along with a slightly mocking air.
“Summer’s Gone” was a poignant little piece that fit the nostalgic title Daniels gave it, and the jaunty “Thad Said No” came from Goodwin’s pen, referring to the fact that Daniels was never allowed to take a solo [on the clarinet] in all the years he played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra on Monday nights at the Village Vanguard in New York.
“Blues in the Bucket” was probably the most enjoyable tune of the night, being a swaggering, righteous blues, but everything put forth by these highly trained lads was accessible and immediately enjoyable without being dumbed down.
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Jazz Improv Magazine
CD/DVD Review
By Jack Bowers
When it comes to big bands and baseball teams, there’s a lot to be said for keen eyes, flawless timing and an abundance of raw power. While never seeming to break a moderate sweat, Gordon Goodwin’s handsomely muscled Big Phat Band lays the heavy lumber on ten of his cleverly disguised pitches – fast balls, curves, sliders, change-ups – and hammers every one of them over the bleachers and out of the ballpark. Goodwin’s “murderer’s row” includes a number of Southern California’s most formidable big-band sluggers, and as he asserts in the liner notes, all of them perform “at an astonishing level” on this electrifying album. This is true as well of the squad’s “designated hitters” – clarinetist Eddie Daniels, alto saxophonists Eric Marienthal and Brandon Fields, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and guitarist Carl Verheyen. Even when the skipper has to juggle the lineup (bass trombonist Bill Reichenbach pinch-hitting for Craig Ware, pianist Tom Ranier for Dave Stone, guitarist James Harrah for Grant Geissman, electric bassist John Pena for acoustic bassist Dave Stone, drummer Gregg Bissonette for Bernie Dresel), his Big Phat Band keeps striking the ball as solidly and consistently as ever. Of course, every team needs a well-designed game plan, and that’s where Goodwin excels by providing a series of remarkably dynamic and colorful charts, beginning with “Sing Sang Sung,” a name that should occasion a smile or two from those who recall Benny Goodman’s legendary Carnegie Hall concert of 1938. Dresel plays Gene Krupa on Goodwin’s sharp and swinging parody, complementing fiery solos by Daniels and Sandoval. “Count Bubba” (solos by Goodwin on tenor and alto Dan Higgins) and “Samba del Gringo” (Andy Martin, trombone; Fields, alto, and some awesome ensemble work) keep the temperature high before Goodwin works his special magic on J.S. Bach’s “Two-Part Invention in D Minor,” transmuting the King of Fugue into an eighteenth-century King of Swing (as Daniels swings along with him). Goodwin plays piano (and Higgins solos again) on the Latin charmer “I Remember,” after which Marienthal, Martin, Ranier and everyone else swing from the heels on the sharp-breaking title selection, Sandoval and Marienthal execute a superb double play on “Mueva Los Huesos (Shake Your Bones)” and Goodwin’s soprano sax sparkles on the sensuous ballad, “Second Chances.” If there’s a letdown it comes on the funky “There’s The Rub” and “A Few Good Men,” but at least Goodwin has placed them last in the batting order, and if less absorbing than his other compositions, they are no less impressively played by the Big Phat Band, which seems incapable fashioning an inferior product. If there’s a pennant to be won in the big band league, here’s the team to beat.
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JazzTimes
CD Reviews
April 2001
By Sean Daly
Hello, my name is Sean, and I am a DVD slut. No matter how lousy a certain movie might be-heck, even when I've already seen the piece of crap in the theater-if the DVD version includes "bonus material" (deleted scenes, director's commentary, making-of featurettes), then there's a good chance I'll be pulling out the wallet. Sure, I have classics like Taxi Driver, Don't Look Back, and Jaws, but I'm also the proud owner of Showgirls, Mission: Impossible 2, and 1941. I know: It's pathetic. But now my mania is reaching even more fevered heights: Because of Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, I'm now hooked on DVD music, too. Bandleader Goodwin's Swingin' for the Fences is 10 hellzapoppin' (and I don't use that word lightly) swing tracks-nine of which were written by the man himself-recorded in six-channel DTS digital surround sound. (That sound you hear is my drool hitting the linoleum.) Which means, of course, that from the very first notes of album-opener "Sing Sang Sung"-and all the way to "A Few Good Men"'s raucous finale-the music isn't just coming from my stereo, but from my kitchen, my shower and my walk-in closet, as well. The clarity of the mix is jaw dropping, to say the least. More than 40 artists make up the Big Phat Band-including such big phat talents as Arturo Sandoval and Eddie Daniels-and when this disc is pumping on all cylinders, it sounds like each and every musician has been crammed into my dinky apartment for a brassy all-night bash. Swingin' for the Fences commences with a traditional swing sound, but eventually incorporates pop, classical, rock, and tropical touches as well. As for the DVD extras, Goodwin, who plays woodwinds, horns and piano as well as leads the band, offers puckish liner notes, photographs from the recording sessions and an informal behind-the-scenes video. But who needs visuals when the music, safe but bombastic, literally dances in front of your eyes. Besides, if I want really good extras, I can always pop in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure .
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A Great Way To End The Year
By Bruce Fessier
The Desert Sun
January 1, 2003
Add another event to the list of best local concerts of 2002. The second annual Desert Big Band and Jazz Party provided three days and nights of dazzling, pyrotechnical music and ringing cash registers Saturday through Monday at the Riviera Resort and Racquet Club of Palm Springs.
The hotel’s Mediterranean Room was so filled Saturday night; they had to open a back room to fit a party of 65 people from Albuquerque, N.M. The event only attracted about 850 people, but less than 100 were walk-in traffic, so the event made money for the Riviera as well as promoter Larry Hathaway.
More importantly, the music was significant enough to generate a buzz about a Palm Springs event from coast to coast. It was covered by PBS jazz station KKJZ and several jazz journalists.
As drummer and bandleader Frank Capp said, there is no other jazz party quite like this one. Whereas most jazz parties feature quality soloists matched with other top players to see how they can spontaneously combust, this event does that just to kindle to bigger fires.
The nightly main event was a superior big band with the kind of cohesiveness fans old enough to remember Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman said you couldn’t even find in the Big Band Era. Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, made up of 17 guys in their 20s and 30s, astounded listeners with their fiery, precise playing.
The Big Phat Band distinguishes itself from older bands by the original compositions and arrangements of its leader. Goodwin, who elicits interesting performances from his players by the way he plays piano, as Duke Ellington did, is influenced as a writer by Count Basie arranger Sam Nestico. He loves those flag wavers and has a drummer in Bernie Dresel who can drive a band with more flair than Conan O’Brien’s Max Weinberg. But he also has a good musical sense of humor and a respect for what his virtuoso players can do. He brings out the best of them as a conductor, moving away from his piano to direct his reed players through intricate figures like a chamber ensemble. Goodwin’s new compositions add life to the big band repertoire, but he also gives a contemporary sound to jazz classics such as Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia,” which was hard to recognize until the chorus.
The only challenge to Goodwin for festival highlight was Saturday’s Stan Kenton tribute by a band of all-stars. Leader Bob Curnow brought layers of sophistication to his material, mostly from Kenton’s 1955 “Contemporary Concepts” album, and generated an emotional reaction equal to that earned by Goodwin’s more visceral sound.
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