Across the breadth of big-band power: Serenade Jazz Orchestra at the Jazz Kitchen

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The stability of a 75-year-old downtown business lies behind the continuing viability of the Serenade Jazz Orchestra, a big band with a wide repertoire under the direction of Rick Oldham, who's part of a

Diane Tsao with the Serenade Jazz Orchestra

powerhouse saxophone section and emcee of its appearance Tuesday night at the Jazz Kitchen. 

Oldham's business stature came up just once as he concisely guided a first-set full house through 15 selections. He told the story of how he got enthusiastic permission from Freddie Hubbard's family to include an image of the trumpeter (who died in 2008) in the 2012 mural that adorns the south wall of Musicians' Repair and Sales on North Capitol Street. The anecdote was by way of introducing a zesty reading of Hubbard's "Sky Dive."

The 16-piece band got off to a conventional start with a piece guaranteed to get a Pavlovian response from big-band aficionados: Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" with its familiar voicings updated decades ago in a Tommy Newsom arrangement for the "Tonight Show" band.  As he was to do several times in the set, Greg Johnson took a significant alto-sax solo. Most solos throughout were concise in the big-band tradition, and several were notable from trumpeter P. J. Yinger, who was especially distinctive on flugelhorn in "Georgia on My Mind" and "Sky Dive."

Popular hits in appropriate big-band design are a staple of the repertoire: The audience heard Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" to bring the first set to a close, as earlier the big backbeat "Pick Up the Pieces" drew upon the Average White Band.

Vocalist Diane Tsao made her Jazz Kitchen debut in several numbers. Her clarity and well-modeled phrasing lent an extra dimension to Serenade's intensity. In "Fever," "Fly Me to the Moon," and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," her blend of relaxation and mood-setting carried over to the accompaniment with an energy that still found time to smell the roses. 

The band crisply punctuated a trombone solo in Horace Silver's "The Jody Grind," and that was typical in the ensemble's respect for its soloists. In a rare excursion into outright ballad territory, the Serenaders offered a tender, well-blended "Dreamsville" from the Henry Mancini book. As it had throughout, the sax section lent to the tune a full-bodied sound that represented the band at its best.


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