All Original Classic Jazz by the Little Big Band features; Terry Clarke - drums, Bob Erlendson - piano, John Erlendson - bass, Bob Brough - alto sax, Shawn Nykwist - tenor sax, Chris Gale - bari sax, William Sperandei - trumpet, and Russ Little - trb!

7 MP3 Songs in this album (47:02) !
Related styles: Jazz: Big Band, Jazz: Bebop, Instrumental

People who are interested in Bill Evans Boss Brass Herbie Hancock should consider this download.


Details:
A Jazzmanâs passions
At 80, Bob Erlendson finds the perfect octet
Published March 31, 2011 by Dennis Slater in Music Previews

Canadian jazz ledgend and Calgary resident Bob Erlendson has found his dream octet. The real winner? Us.

Listen up, jazz fans: Friday is a watershed for one of Canadaâs most important jazz pianists â one who just happens to live in Calgary. Bob Erlendson is celebrating the release of volume two of his All About Jazz CD series, and if that wasnât enough, heâll be recording the gig for volume three of the series, backed by the whoâs-who in Calgary jazz.

Now 80, with an impressive five decades as a composer, performer and teacher, Erlendson is still a dynamic showman. What drives him? Erlendson says itâs the same thing that motivated him when he was younger.

âI like to play the piano,â he says. âI know that in certain aspects, Iâm a better player now than I ever was. If thereâs a flaw, itâs in not getting quite enough practicing in and not enough challenges of being out performing for people. Because Iâve always loved that.â

And heâs up for the challenge. While performing is one of his passions, composing â particularly for octet arrangements â is another. Octets have fascinated him since the 1950s, and that passion can be pinned to one time and place: Montreal, 1954.

That was the year Erlendson and his friend saxophonist Don Thompson saw the famous jazzman Illinois Jacquet in concert.

âDon said, âWhy donât we try (an octet),â because weâd been lucky enough to see Illinois Jacquetâs octet in Montreal in â54. It was a really good band, three good saxophone players, a trumpet player and a trombone player and a nice rhythm section. Illinois was Donâs hero, so to get to see him in person was great. But to actually hear him with an octet was something else.â

In the years following, Erlendson composed for octets. He and Thompson shopped the idea around, but in late â50s in Toronto, where he was then living, interest was slim.

âThe drag was from there until late â58 we only ended up with five different jobs with that band,â he explains. âThere just wasnât much outlet for it. We had the charts and weâd done some rehearsals but there were only the five jobs.â

Opportunities aside, the octetâs form, and its little-big-band sound, continued to fascinate Erlendson. So he kept writing, kept creating and salting those compositions away. And itâs those compositions that formed the seed of 2007âs live All About Jazz Volume 1. Now, the seriesâ second chapter announces itself in a gig that will feature Al Muirhead on trumpet, Eric Friedenberg, Ian Clayton and Gerry Hebert on saxes, Carsten Rubeling on trombone, Simon Fisk (bass), and Tyler Hornby (drums). It doesnât get better than this.

For Erlendson, though, itâs still about performing, composing and staying ready for that next gig.

âI donât have any big picture,â he says of the future. âOther than, say, writing a couple more tunes, looking over the octet book and realizing... at least one-third of the tunes Iâve written I havenât even got an octet version. So, even if the jobâs two years away, if Iâve got them written down on paper, they can be used. All I can say is I feel healthy. Iâm going to keep playing.â

Lucky for us.