John Wasson’s Big Band Nostalgia

from the Amazon.com Web page

A little over a week ago, MAMA Records released the album Chronicles, consisting of eight tracks of performances by John Wasson’s Strata Big Band. Since I was unfamiliar with this name, the Foreword in the accompanying booklet, written by jazz trombonist John Fedchock, provided me with some useful context. Both Fedchock and Wasson played in the trombone section of the Woody Herman Orchestra in the Eighties, and both of them provided arrangements for the ensemble.

Fedchock introduces the Chronicles album as follows:

Chronicles takes the listener through a myriad of styles set through the big band prism, with a program moving from intense swing, infectious funk and driving clave, to lush ensemble sonorities, sensitive solo showcases and freshly reimagined classics, all culminating in a programmatic multi-movement tour de force. This album not only showcases top professionals with impressive ensemble skills, but also a group containing some very personalized and expressive solo voices. And those voices seamlessly meld with the fabric of John’s writing, exemplifying the true definition of a jazz orchestra.

There is clearly a lot of enthusiasm in that encomium. However, Fedchock and Watson were members of “The Young Thundering Herds,” the last group to be led by Herman until his death in October of 1987. This was a far cry from the “First Herd,” which was on the “front lines” of the bebop movement, playing arrangements prepared for them by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie. The closest Strata gets to that spirit is “Blues for Alice,” which was composed by Charlie Parker relatively late in his career in 1951. Ironically, this track follows on the heels of “Maria” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, whose presence is, at the very least, perplexing.

Four of the nine tracks are Wasson originals. They definitely reflect that “myriad of styles” that Fedchock admires. Sadly, however, this is not really music that keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering what will be the next rabbit that Wasson pulls out of his hat. Instead, I found myself reflecting on the title of Simone Signoret’s memoir, Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. (Does anyone watch her films any more?) If I am going to indulge in nostalgia, I would prefer to do so through “primary sources!”