Anticipating recording release, Sean Imboden Large Ensemble offers substantial preview

Taylor Eigsti sat in with the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble.

Building on  a reputation and a history that goes back to a muddy day eight years ago in Broad Ripple Park, the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble is on the verge of releasing its debut recording come spring. 

Having gathered  $21,000 through a KickStarter campaign, the bandleader told a capacity audience Saturday night at the Jazz Kitchen that the 17-piece band will have a document of its achievement ready to supplement its successful live appearances featuring original music.

The December 7 engagement had a special feature: guest pianist Taylor Eigsti, a several-times Grammy nominee who's just returned from a tour of Europe with his trio. Eigsti has a flowing style with a gift for melodic improvisation, displayed especially in "Balcony," one of Imboden's original charts from 2016. 

The bandleader took a well-articulated soprano-sax solo there, while most of his occasional solo turns were on tenor. Otherwise he fronted the band, conducting, in a set that had just one standard, "Stella by Starlight." That arrangement showed Imboden's gift for packing variety fused into a coherent whole within each piece, as had his own "Fire Spirit" just before.

"Certified Organic," like most of Imboden's titles allowing for guesses as to how they apply to the music, covers a wide emotional expanse. A note of foreboding in the introduction gives way to an outpouring of confident energy. In this performance it manifested itself in Joel Tucker's ebullient guitar solo. That led into one of Eigsti's personable turns in the spotlight.

The bandleader's sure feeling for organizing his sets so that each piece contributes something distinctive was evident in the ballad that followed, "Someone to Watch Over Us." A couple of reedmen turned to flutes against a reflective pulsating backdrop before Matt Pivec solidified the imploring mood with his alto solo showcase.

Praising the high level of artistry in his band, Imboden said the best way he's found to acknowledge that is to provide increased solo opportunities. There were about a half-dozen in "Portal Passage," a composition amounting to a picaresque tone poem. Among the solo turns was a series of fruitful exchanges between trumpeter Scott Belck and baritone saxophonist Evan Drybread.

The set ended with an airborne "Follow the Kite," a display of Imboden's whimsical muse, with more good soloing, in which Nick Tucker's bass stood out. The ensemble was up to snuff, with precisely placed staccato phrases that seemed characteristic, perhaps, of the dipping and soaring kite adventures of Charlie Brown. 

As the band looks forward to a successful launch for  the recording, there is probably something more hopeful ahead than the round-headed kid's  "Good grief!"

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]