The Morchestra: Big Band Harold Land! at California Jazz Conservatory

I am fascinated by musicians who reinvent themselves and create their own musical worlds, like Eric Dolphy, Woody Shaw, the Beatles, and the Band, for instance. Harold Land is one of them.

Rewind to the 1950s and he’s playing brawny uptempo bebop with Clifford Brown, no slouch, but very much of a piece with the common practice. Fast forward a decade and, influenced by Coltrane and the burgeoning avant grade and by the social changes that the country is undergoing, his formerly declarative and muscular sound is now pastel and allusive, and his tunes are quirky, asymmetrical, exotic, influenced by ethnic souls and even rock, as well as the modal jazz of the period....

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I am fascinated by musicians who reinvent themselves and create their own musical worlds, like Eric Dolphy, Woody Shaw, the Beatles, and the Band, for instance. Harold Land is one of them.

Rewind to the 1950s and he’s playing brawny uptempo bebop with Clifford Brown, no slouch, but very much of a piece with the common practice. Fast forward a decade and, influenced by Coltrane and the burgeoning avant grade and by the social changes that the country is undergoing, his formerly declarative and muscular sound is now pastel and allusive, and his tunes are quirky, asymmetrical, exotic, influenced by ethnic souls and even rock, as well as the modal jazz of the period.

The arrangements in this program are of Harold Land compositions that were probably written for recording sessions, primarily as vehicles for the improvisors. Figuring out how to build them out for a big band without over- or under-writing them is a bit of a challenge for an arranger. I hope I’ve done right by the music and by you, our listeners, and I hope this concert turns you on to what I think is an under-appreciated side of one of our great jazz musicians - a Californian no less - Harold Land, composer.

—Tony Corman, Morchestra Director, Composer, and Lone Arranger

The Band

Saxes: Larry De La Cruz, Richard Mathias, Dave Tidball, Guido Fazio, Charlie Keagle
Trumpets: Brad Catania, Walt Beveridge, Mike Beveridge, Ian Carey
Trombones: Derek James, Dave Martell, Chuck Bennett, Rich Lee
Piano: Laura Klein
Bass: Karl Hartmann
Drums: Dave Rokeach

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