Steve Allee Big Band: Powerhouse ensemble sparkles with expert soloing and composing/arranging glory

It's been less than three months since I heard the Steve Allee Big Band at home in the leader's son's

Steve Allee: rapport with the public in word and deed

durable club, but I missed it already. Absence not only makes the heart grow fonder; the musical appetite salivates as well. It was time for a pre-Thanksgiving feast. 

So, with a full house at the Jazz Kitchen Saturday night, I luxuriated in the latest from the 17-piece ensemble. Midway through the second set, I thought here's a big band with the collective chops of one of those West Coast aggregations with personnel seasoned in lucrative studio work (at least in the days before synthesized cinema pablum) who seem ever ready to let loose delivering jazz. Think of Gerald Wilson, Terry Gibbs, Bob Mintzer, and even the Tonight Show band under Doc Severinsen. 

I know those only from recordings, but here we have that performing glory among Hoosiers (a few of them honorary) with the advantage of drawing from the stellar book of Allee compositions and arrangements. There are those teasing slow intros, as the one in Allee's "Hubbub," a tribute to a long-gone Indiana Avenue watering hole and jazz palace, and another opening up the better-git-in-your-soul messaging of "Truth Be Told," with the essential truth-telling of Rob Dixon's tenor sax at the forefront. 

There is excellent comping, like Sandy Williams' guitar behind Matt Pivec's lucid alto sax solo in "Hubbub," and the subtle background coloring that lent authenticity to Anson Banks' pert, slightly  anguished trumpet in "Naptown Nights," a new piece with that wee-small-hours feeling that Allee knew in his younger years after gigs that ended at 3 a.m. There was just a hint of F. Scott Fitzgerald's lament that the real dark night of the soul is centered on that time. Later in the set, a fruitful, temporary partnership was a tell-it-like-it-is exchange between trumpeter Jeff Conrad and Dixon in Allee's "Freedom," for which the pianist's pensive unaccompanied take on the Beatles' "Blackbird" provided a prelude.

But the general Allee disposition is bright and assertive, respectful of the tradition he was trained in and the many influences he has absorbed, as well as positive about the future. "Twins," dedicated to the Corn brothers (Steve and Greg) with whom Allee associated  for many years, opened the set. It featured meaty solos from trombonist Zach Granger and baritone saxist Ned Boyd. They provided a promise that every Allee soloist was ready to take care of business, and truly the consistency of solos stayed at a high level.

The set ended in excelsis with Allee's arrangement of "Hub-Tones," a Freddie Hubbard classic. It featured round-robin soloing by the band. In ensemble, the trumpets took a chorus together in unison, sounding as if a Hubbard solo on the piece had been transcribed and was used to nail down the tribute. The sax section had a special showcase, and a string of short monologues was passed around, four bars down to two each. Everything was animated by Steve Houghton's drumming, whose mastery of driving an ensemble was once again confirmed throughout the set. 

I promise to wait patiently for the next opportunity to hear this nonpareil band in the New Year.