Nat Hentoff writes in today's OpinionJournal of his youthful memories watching Duke Ellington -- and of positive signs for a big-band revival.
[...] but it has been generally felt among jazz listeners that the big-band era was lost in nostalgia.I'm no longer sure of that, having, on a Monday night in October, heard the Joe Elefante Big Band at Cecil's, a small club in West Orange, N.J. The spirited 26-year-old leader, pianist and chief arranger heads a 17-piece, joyous band composed mostly of players around his own age. Also among them are musicians who used to be in such big-band-era bands as Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson and Count Basie. It's been together almost three years.
I am a small-ensemble man myself. Yes, a big band is exciting, but the trio-t-six-piece acts put on at Summit Jazz leave a lot more room for nuance. The Duke himself said "Music is the space between the notes."
The economics of big bands (if I can slide into technical music-economics jargon) just plain sucks. I think you can do it in New York and I think that smaller towns will develop less well-known and less talented ensembles who will keep the flame alive, but I don't see a revival as an economic possibility, whatever personal tastes dictate.
If I can end on a side note, thinking of Wynton's group makes me realize that jazz really is the last true meritocracy. The guys who make it are really good -- and I think the guys who are really good do make it. I wouldn’t make either claim about the Pop, rock, or country worlds.