Passing the good stuff around: 'Big Band Extravaganza' has cheery West Coast vibe

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Doug MacDonald shapes big band around his guitar.

Carrying on the legacy of West Coast jazz, a variety sometimes disparaged in the sway New York has held for nearly a century,  Doug MacDonald is a California guitarist-composer-arranger with a veteran's substantial resume. In "Big Band Extravaganza" (Dmac Music), he has assembled a neat, crackling  ensemble, populated with concise soloists to match the adeptness of his guitar.

The variety and smooth shifts of sound are remarkable. "Ya Know Bill," the tune that ends the ten-track set, features an arrangement that feels like a collective beanbag toss.

Every original chart is fetching and brightly colored; only Gershwin's  "But Not For Me" settles for jogging along nonchalantly without bringing out much of the original. The next track, MacDonald's "Minor Mess," suffers slightly from being in the same tempo, but there's more kick in the arrangement, and the skittering lyricism of Les Benedict's trombone solo is delightful.

I was struck by the phrase-to-phrase changes in texture in the samba "Luz de Amour," which is also typical of "Big Band Extravaganza" in the natural way the texture thins to allow prominence to the leader's unemphatic solo guitar. He gives himself an expansive showcase in "Aventura En Triadas," and takes a substantial solo in "Da Ha." That shows off  the band's comfort in an old-school boogaloo vein, with added individuality in Rickey Woodard's tenor-sax solo.

"Toluca Lake Jazz" opens the disc, titled after a Los Angeles neighborhood. It somewhat resembles the Ray Noble chestnut "Cherokee" and features another notable trombone soloist, Ivan Malespin. "Desert Jazz," perhaps recalling MacDonald's long residence in Las Vegas, has a series of short solos nicely set off in the arrangement. Such touches of local color take place in a context evincing a high comfort level among the total of 18 musicians involved.


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