If a jazz concert calls for co-leaders who have big-band credentials, drummer
Peter Erskine and trumpeter
Tim Hagans are both well qualified for the job.
Erskine's résumé includes experience in the orchestras of
Stan Kenton and
Maynard Ferguson, while
Hagans' big-band experience includes
Kenton,
Woody Herman,
the Danish Radio Big Band (under
Thad Jones' direction), and Maria Schneider. Neither have played with big bands exclusively by any means, but both of them have demonstrated that they are comfortable in both a small-group environment and a big-band environment -- and they certainly sound like they are enjoying themselves on
Worth the Wait. Recorded live in Luleå, Sweden, in 2006, this 68-minute CD finds co-leaders
Erskine and
Hagans (who serves as the concert's conductor) joining forces with Sweden's
Norrbotten Big Band. Between
Erskine,
Hagans, and
Norrbotten, there are 18 musicians on board; however, the soloists have plenty of room to stretch out. Big-band concerts, by their very nature, require a strong sense of teamwork, but that doesn't prevent the soloists on this post-bop/hard bop disc (who include
Erskine,
Hagans, tenor saxophonist
Mats Garberg, and alto saxophonist
Håkan Broström) from sounding uninhibited.
Broström, for example, seriously digs into
Hagans' modal offering "First Jazz." Quite often, big bands are stereotyped as predictable outfits that are obligated to embrace
Buddy Rich-type arrangements and play a lot of overdone Tin Pan Alley warhorses. But there are no warhorses on
Worth the Wait; all of the material performed was composed by either
Erskine or
Hagans.
Worth the Wait is a solid document of
Erskine's 2006 encounter with
Hagans and
Norrbotten in Sweden. ~ Alex Henderson