Mike Price Orchestra with Yoshinobu Inagaki

Live at B Flat December 13

Mike Price--trumpet and leader
Yoshinobu Inagaki--drums
many others

There’s on nights and off nights for every group, and though Mike Price’s voice was off with a sore throat, the orchestra was very much “on.” This Buddy Rich tribute  of fifteen of Rich’s most popular pieces came together wonderfully. Price played in Rich’s band for several years in the late 60s, and he has over the years gathered the superb arrangements the Rich Big Band was famous for. Putting this group of top-notch players together, and getting them practiced was surely no easy task. Most of these players are fully booked, for good reason, and all four of the trumpeters lead their own dynamic groups.

Sitting in Rich’s seat, Inagaki had a lot to live up to. He is one of the best big band drummers in town, though, and he easily kept the band moving forward through difficult charts. But after pushing the horns forward, he still had energy left to take creative solos. He has clearly been influenced by Rich’s brash, powerful style, but is never constrained by that. He adds textures, patterns and flourishes in his own way. Even the horn players turned to watch every beat of his solos, and clapped at everything from his amazing ability to switch dynamic levels with losing the flow to his unexpected rhythm from “Jingle Bells.”

The horns did not appear to be in the least inhibited by the historical importance of the charts, but instead, used them as a springboard to drop into one high-energy solo after the next. The trombone section took the ballad solos on the slower blues, on a lovely arrangement of “Greensleeves” and “Alfie.” Their technique and range added nuance and subtle rhythmic variation. The saxophone section, particularly Fumio Hayashi, handled the melodies with verve and a comfortable sense of where the tunes could go. The trumpet section were the knock-out punch, though. Each of the members hit stratospheric highs that only touched back to earth at supersonic speeds. Each of the sections breathed as one, shifting against the other sections like tectonic plates of sound.

The charts from Rich’s arrangers all tend towards the upbeat, but the good-time feel was tempered by careful control of the rhythm by Inagaki. Even on the fastest numbers, the tempo was kept tight and even, so the solos came out with consideration and taste. “West Side Story” and “Love For Sale” were standouts, bringing shouts from the crowd. Every tune held a gem of a solo that drove the other players to answer. One of the marks of an excellent selection of players is they all consider quality a challenge, and rise up to meet it. Buddy would have smiled at them doing just that.