Talented young musicians leave audience in awe

BOB MINTZER AND THE CRESCENT SUPER BAND, Sheraton City Center, Nov. 16

If you weren't at the Bob Mintzer/Crescent Super Band concert, you missed a show.

If you were there, then you know exactly why the Crescent Super Band has a bucket load of awards and accolades. It's that good.

And to think the world-renowned band comprises high school students from around the state only makes the recognition that much more impressive.

While director Caleb Chapman deserves the credit, he immediately directs the praise to the band, which lived up to the all the hype during the show Monday.

The energy and musicality hit the audience first with such classics as "Too Close for Comfort" and the rip-roaring version of "Sing Sing Sing."

Time and time again, audience members sat in awe. Other times they clapped and stomped along to the contagious rhythms.

When the Grammy Award-winning Mintzer stepped on stage, the audience was primed and ready for a show that not only dipped into Mintzer's catalog from his tenure as saxophonist with the Yellowjackets, but also some classic Count Basie works.

The easy-going Mintzer, who is also the director of University of Southern California's Thornton Jazz Orchestra, turned on some younger concertgoers with his own "Go Go" and Basie's "One O'clock Jump."

He also accompanied the band with his big-band version of the Yellowjackets' "March Majestic."

While the set list was undoubtedly decided before the show, the tunes were loose enough for band members to toss around the improvisational ball.

Throughout the evening the young players would stand up and blow the audience away with their solos. And each time that happened the audience would applaud for more.

Mintzer wasn't selfish about his playing, either. He joined the solo lineups and cranked out his emotive solos and stepped back when the kids were stepping up to play.

The joy on Chapman's face said it all as he led Mintzer and the band into the classic Basie work "Cute," which was written by Neil Hefti, who passed away a little more than a year ago. And the band upped the notch with the crowd favorite "Caravan," which featured tricky time-signature changes the band played without any missteps.

Clearly this wasn't just a band made up of teens. This was a band that heard, felt and played from the heart and didn't just go through the motions.

All too soon the show ended with an encore that featured Jaco Pastorius' version of P.W. Ellis' "The Chicken," and the audience couldn't wait to give the band and Mintzer a standing ovation.

The show will, without a doubt, be talked about for years to come.

e-mail: scott@desnews.com