Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement

Description: Swing - Advanced

Publisher: Walrus Music Publishing

It’s been a hundred years since the iconic jazz recordings that Brent Wallarab's Gennett Suite invokes began to be made for the record-label subsidiary of a Richmond, Indiana piano factory. Recorded jazz itself is only a few years older, marking the sources that Wallarab brilliantly reflects in his new work as early bursts of light in the newly-formed universe that was 1920s jazz—a music so vibrant and modern that author F. Scott Fitzgerald latched onto it for a description of the decade itself as 'the Jazz Age.'

It's an apt term, actually. The 1920s was an age of sound, with many Americans increasingly able to listen to phonograph records and radio broadcasts, to call one another on a telephone, and to hear actors and actresses talking in movies. Its technologically inspired transformation of connectivity had an impact comparable to that of social media and digital communication in our own era. Jazz, spreading rhythm around the land from New Orleans and Chicago to New York and California, was a beneficiary and became the soundtrack of the times.

As jazz moves into its second recorded century, new technology has given listeners an embarrassment of riches, thanks to streaming services and other forms of transmission that continue to evolve. How do jazz artists respond to so much accumulated history and influence, requiring you only to pick up your phone and browse everything from early masters such as Jelly Roll Morton and Mary Lou Williams to modern-day luminaries like Esperanza Spalding and Vijay Iyer?

Brent Wallarab's The Gennett Suite is a response to the call of jazz history rooted in the composer’s love of the music, his desire to transform and renew it, and his own history. Wallarab arrived in Bloomington, Indiana in 1987 to pursue a graduate degree in jazz studies at Indiana University, and specifically to study with jazz educator David Baker, whose reputation as a brilliant teacher and composer was already widespread. After completing his work at IU in 1991, he moved to Washington, D.C. and began a job at the Smithsonian Institution, transcribing and restoring hundreds of big-band charts that the Smithsonian had deemed historically important. Several years later, with colleague Dominic Spera taking a sabbatical, Baker called Wallarab back to Bloomington to take on a teaching role himself. (Now a tenured member of IU's jazz faculty, Wallarab has inherited Baker’s former office at the Jacobs School of Music and is the inaugural recipient of a professorship established in Baker’s name.) Shortly after his return Wallarab also co-founded the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, which at nearly 30 years and counting is one of the longest-running big bands on the modern scene, with a discography of eight albums that includes two tributes to the music of David Baker, and now The Gennett Suite. The Gennett Suite, Wallarab emphasizes, is not a recreation of the classic 1920s Gennett recordings made by artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Bix Beiderbecke. Wallarab instead has used these landmark Gennett solos and compositions as seeds, creating a thriving new landscape of music right at home in the contemporary world, but well-marked with signposts pointing to the origins of our present moment.

Movement 2: Blues Faux Bix
Davenport Blues, one of just a few compositions left behind by cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, was recorded by Beiderbecke at Gennett on January 26, 1925, with a young Tommy Dorsey on trombone. It’s named in honor of Beiderbecke’s hometown of Davenport, Iowa, which gives this project part of its personal connection—Brent Wallarab has extensive family roots in Davenport. (He also went to college in Carbondale, Illinois, birthplace of saxophonist and Bix musical running mate Frankie Trumbauer.) It’s also not a blues. After Mamie Smith’s smash 1920 hit Crazy Blues, many recordings in subsequent years had the term attached to their titles, regardless of whether the song was one. Hence Wallarab's title serves as both tribute and pun on the musical nature of Davenport Blues, evoking the sort of wordplay that his mentor David Baker loved to employ.

Trumpeter and orchestra co-founder Mark Buselli, another important person in Wallarab's life-story, opens Davenport Blues and does heavy lifting throughout. "Davenport Blues is so strong melodically, and I wanted it to be a feature for Mark," says Wallarab. Jazz Me Blues, the second part of the Blues Faux Bix movement, also gave Wallarab vital melodic content to work with. "The original melodies aren’t fragile; they're not going to disintegrate in these new settings," he says. Amanda Gardier's alto sax solo begins in a ballad groove and then accelerates, followed by a bright and sprightly Luke Gillespie, and then some cool-heat maneuvers from trumpeter Scott Belck. After a cacophonous burst and repetition of the theme, the ensemble pauses for Jeremy Allen’s supple bass interlude, giving us a chance to catch our breath.

The tempo picks up as we snap to Wolverine Blues, based on Jelly Roll Morton’s composition. "It’s full of playful humor that I hope would please Mr. Morton, and is more or less of a framework for soloists, contrasting some of the composition-heavy prior movements," says Wallarab. Scott Belck’s jaunty trumpet solo leads the way, followed by a buoyant Amanda Gardier on alto sax, Allen again on bass, and Luke Gillespie bubbling out of the ensemble on piano. After a final reprise of the Davenport Blues theme, we’re on our way to Hoagland.

NOTE: The Wolverine Blues section features 4 saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone) with 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass trombone, piano, bass, and drums.

--David Brent Johnson

David Brent Johnson is the jazz director for WFIU-Bloomington, Indiana, and the host of the nationally-syndicated historical jazz program Night Lights.

 

 

Full Score
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
2 Tenor Saxophones
Baritone Saxophone
4 Trumpets (All Double Flugelhorn)
3 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Piano
Bass
Drum Set

Trumpet 1: A6
Trombone 1: Bb5