Strathmore's jazz debut is a sloppy start

On Wednesday, Feb. 23, the newly opened Strathmore Hall in Rockville held its first jazz concert, presenting the Mingus Big Band, a 14-member ensemble dedicated to the musical legacy of the late bassist and composer Charles Mingus. The event's theme was "Blues and Politics."

The Washington Performing Arts Society invited 100 Montgomery County high-school students to attend the concert free of charge. Even so, the venue was only about half full. The musicians appeared disappointed, and the show was disappointing.

Throughout the evening, there was a mantra of disorganization. The soundmen were always behind schedule. The concert began painfully loud, and the sound was only turned down after about 10 seconds. The solos began inaudibly and were only turned up after about 10 seconds. To solo, the horn players had to walk to a microphone that never seemed to have the right volume and then spend about 10 seconds adjusting it to the height of their instrument. About 10 seconds into the solos, the lighting would obnoxiously and distractingly change, and few of the solos were given enough time to make any kind of statement.

Though the solos were curt, many of the songs, such as "Pinky, Don't Come Back from the Moon Looking for Love No More, Man" were, like the title, overly long. The songs were arranged in such a way that the horn section lacked melodic definition, sounding like a soup of sound; they drowned out almost all of the solos. This was compounded with an almost complete lack of dynamics, presumably more of the soundmen's fault than the musicians'.

But the aural deficiency can't all be blamed on the musicians, stagehands and soundmen. Although Strathmore feels and looks like a modern musical palace, with spires of speakers framing the stage, the acoustics are significantly less pristine. The bass sound in the room has more thud than boom, without enough sustain to round out the music. The hall also carries too many reverberations; the entire first set was accompanied by an angry, midrange roar.

The opening song was "Don't Let It Happen Here," which included a powerful reading of the poem "First They Came For the Communists," by Rev. Martin Niemoller over the ominous horn section. The highlight of the concert was a chilling piece entitled "Meditations on a Pair of Wire Cutters," a song inspired by Japanese interment during World War II, which featured the two best solos of the evening: one by Abraham Burton, which was given time to develop into something meaningful, and another by bandleader Jaleel Shaw, whose flute was able to cut over the background saturation.

The most enthusiastic member of the band was trombonist and singer Ku-umba Frank Lacy. He wore a turban, a shawl and a gray beard and flailed, shook and knelt throughout his solos, often inadvertently pointing his horn away from the mike. Also, the whole crowd applauded for Earl McIntyre's superfluous tuba solo, which showcased his ability to play the same note in five different octaves, almost in tune. The tuba was not designed to be flashy.

The final piece of the evening featured an energetic, no-holds-barred drum solo, but it was too little, too late. The tune petered out, a weak end to a disappointing concert. Most of the musicians seemed to be playing just well enough to comfortably get by, but jazz isn't really jazz without some risk.