Search - Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lew Tabackin :: Mosaic Select: Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big

Leader of the last great big band

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 07/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"See my review at All About Jazz for a description of all the music, which ranges from 5-minute cookers to a 20-plus minute extended tone poem. There's sufficient evidence on the RCA recordings preserved in this Mosaic box set to support the claim that Toshiko's, in addition to being the first killer band led by a woman and playing a repertory composed almost entirely of her music, was the most creative and exciting big band during a time when, thanks largely to the academization of jazz studies and the labors of love of Ellington, Basie, Kenton, Woody, Maynard and Buddy Rich as "road bands" keeping the flame alive for little monetary return, that the big bands indeed were back--sort of. Rock, country, and fusion still sold out the big arenas and brought in the mega bucks, but high school and college kids along with their parents and the long-deprived big band fans from the 1940s had a magnificent reprieve. Two coastal "studio" bands benefited--Thad Jones/Mel Lewis on the East Coast and Toshiko/Tabackin on the West. Of the two, Toshiko's was the more daring, original, and well-rehearsed (there was no other way to cut the charts).



Some of this material is straight-ahead and swinging, with Toshiko playing a Bud Powell-inspired introduction which is picked up by the intricate orchestrations of the driving large-ensemble passages (often sounding like Supersax on steroids). At other times, she provides her versatile musicians with rich and colorful timbres, arrangements for 5 flutes, or for a piccolo and contrabass trombone--in short, the most Ellingtonian of all the big bands. (Most of the bands followed the "riff-driven" formulaic patterns that have been common in jazz from "In the Mood" to "Birdland" (the Joe Zawinul tune, not Shearing's "Lullabye).)



The music is pictorial, cinematic, evocative, often drawing on Japanese traditions such as Noh theater and even including a vocal by Toshiko's 13-year-old daughter (by Charlie Mariano). But don't for a moment assume that it's not swinging--with abandon but also precision. With a mixture of familiar professionals (Bill Perkins, Britt Woodman, Bobby Shew, Gene Cherico) and new names, Toshiko approaches composition like Duke: conceiving each piece as it will sound as played by the personalities in the band, not by the generic instruments. (Former Ellingtonian Britt Woodman is simply brilliant, and Bill Perkins plays with unaccustomed fire.)



The sound is full-frequencied and quite natural, open and present, as opposed to the "period piece" quality of much '70s music with its reverb and overly pumped bass tones that simply don't decay. It's a shame that the band could only manage infrequent concertizing after the 1970s--as much a reflection on listeners' insensitivity and lack of musical understanding as economics. (Big name "country bands" with 4-5 musicians travel with 10 times more equipment and command obscene fees that would make Toshiko's seem like minimum wage.) I was able to catch the entire band in a small room--Chicago's Jazz Showcase--in 1979, so perhaps I shouldn't be overly upset by the fusion, country, disco, rock crazes of the day. It was practically the last time that for several bucks you could still hear some of America's greatest musicians with dinner thrown in (not the Showcase but London House, George's, Rick's)--Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, up to four major tenor saxophonists on the same stage (how about Dexter, Jug, Sonny, and Jaws?), the aforementioned Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra. And perhaps above all the Toshiko Akiyoshi big band. If you were not one of the fortunate, you owe it to yourself to pick up this box set or one of the RCA recordings by this singular ensemble."

Amazing collection

William Stewart | 07/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Includes the first five studio albums (complete) by this great LA-based big band. Some of the most exciting big band arrangements ever recorded. Akiyoshi's original compositions are always impressive and her arrangements are consistently amazing. These early albums have been hard to find for years except as expensive imports. All Akiyoshi / Tabackin big band albums are worth acquiring but these early albums really made their reputation in the mid - late 1970s. I hope Mosaic can release the rest of the band's output - especially the live "Road Time" double album."