Shifty Paradigms

4 1/2 STARS While Los Angeles-based composer and arranger Dave Slonaker's paradigms may be shifty, his all-star big band is about as forthright as one could wish. On Shifty Paradigms, his third recording fronting the band, Slonaker guides his peerless eighteen-member ensemble through its paces on a dynamic and always-swinging program that encompasses seven of his stellar original compositions and the venerable standard, "Bye Bye Blues."

Slonaker's game plan is simple: give the band superior themes and charts on which to focus, then stand back and let 'em rip. Needless to say, that is a plan that works best when the musicians involved are exceptional, which happily is the case here. If there are any weak points, individually or collectively, they are well beyond the perception of even the most closely attuned minds and ears.

In short, it must be a genuine pleasure to stand in front of and conduct a band of this caliber—even more so when they are giving voice to music that you have written and arranged especially for them. Slonaker has been leading this same ensemble, more or less, for about fifteen years, which leaves no doubt that everyone is on the same page whenever he raises his baton and sets the engine in motion.

The exhilarating session opens with the sunny and colorful "Dash Cam," inspired, Slonaker writes, by his adventures on the bustling Los Angeles freeways. The music is buoyant, the handsome solos courtesy of valve trombonist Ido Meshulam and tenor saxophonist Tom Luer. "Bye Bye Blues" is next, written first in waltz-time for baritone Adam Schroeder and later as a straight-on up-tempo showcase for trumpeter Ron Stout. "Comin' Home" dons a chorale-like wardrobe to underscore expressive solos by alto Brian Scanlon and guitarist Andy Waddell. Apologies have no doubt already been made for not including Waddell's name in the album's personnel list.

"Blue Windows," a cozy tone poem whose earnest solos are by Meshulam, Schroeder, Scanlon, trumpeter Clay Jenkins, bassist Edwin Livingston, soprano Bob Sheppard and tenor Rob Lockart, leads to the playful and quasi-Latin title song, enlivened by Sheppard, bass trumpeter Bill Reichenbach and Brian Kilgore on congas. Slonaker throws a well-aimed curveball with "3rd and Four," which has nothing to do with the well-known football term but is based instead on his fondness for intervallic developments, namely thirds and fourths. Even so, Slonaker and the band manage to rush headlong for another score. Solos are in the capable hands of Jenkins, Sheppard, Livingston, pianist Ed Czach and drummer Peter Erskine (whose strong and tasteful timekeeping provides steady support on every number).

"Cathedrals," which are grand and imposing edifices in countries around the world, inspired a suitably massive and elegant theme with solos to match by Waddell and trombonist Alex Iles. Slonaker exits the same way he entered, with the band firing on all cylinders on the trim and fast-paced samba, "Roundabout," on which Stout, Lockart and Erskine share solo honors. The band is superb, as always, blending its symmetry and muscle to set up the final shout chorus. Anyone who has been waiting for a special new big-band album to arrive on the doorstep should take special note: the Dave Slonaker Big Band delivers the goods big-time.