Littlebirds Big Band celebrates 25 years
Celebration of jazz band’s legacy brings past members together
Twenty-five years on, the Littlebirds Big Band has become a choice launching pad for the next generation of Edmonton’s jazz talents.
“It’s all about the love of jazz,” says Joel Gray, the local trumpeter who has served as director of the youth-oriented jazz big band for nine years.
To celebrate the band’s legacy, Gray is directing a special alumni reunion edition of the band, comprising many of Alberta’s top jazz players, Saturday at the Yardbird Suite. The 16 current Littlebirds members will also put in a short opening set for the show.
Back in 1988, when instructor-founder Gordon Towell approached the Edmonton Jazz Society to sponsor a special big band program for student players from across Edmonton, no one guessed the impact it might have on the local jazz scene. The jazz society agreed to offer partial funding and a free space for weekly rehearsals at the Yardbird.
(What about that name? The Littlebirds is a reference to the great saxophonist and bebop pioneer Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, who inspired the name of the local jazz club itself.)
Today, Gray says the Littlebirds Big Band represents “an elite opportunity” for auditioned music students from junior and senior high to play in a jazz-driven big band that crosses school districts. There is also now a Littlebirds Combo, a sub-group of the big band players specifically directed to offer solo experience in a small group situation.
“I really try to make the program as intense as I can,” Gray says, “to make the Littlebirds experience different and more challenging than most school bands.
“They’re students, but I push them and treat them in many ways just as I would my professional colleagues. I almost never have attitude problems because they’re so devoted. Some of these charts require a very high level of playing.”
He encourages players to double on instruments whenever possible, so most of the saxes also play clarinet, which becomes important when they take on tunes by clarinet great Benny Goodman. There’s a focus on intonation and reading skills, but finding the right repertoire is important.
“It really depends on the strength of the band. You’ve got to have a strong lead trumpet player to delve into some of the music of Thad Jones. All the charts that the pros in the alumni band are playing this week are charts I have used with the regular Littlebirds band.”
This Saturday’s concert repertoire will include tunes by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Thad Jones, Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson and other great composers.
Current young members can attest to their accelerated learning in the Littlebirds.
Bassist and Grade 11 student Dean Kheroufi, 17, was drawn to jazz after he came across a biography of the great bass innovator Jaco Pastorius. He auditioned two years in a row before he was accepted into the Littlebirds band and now plays both acoustic and electric bass in the big band and the combo.
“There aren’t too many opportunities to get real jazz big band experience, especially with peers who are the best high school players in the city. Getting real hard charts is just awesome too. You have to practise a lot, but we end up sounding really good.”
Kheroufi applied to Grant MacEwan University and Boston’s Berklee College and was accepted by Boston. But he’s sticking with Edmonton to keep his education more affordable.
Littlebirds tenor saxophonist Fred Mack is also going to Grant MacEwan next fall. He became a jazz convert during his Grade 9 year, but says it felt “like heaven on Earth” when he found himself rehearsing and playing at a club with the history of the Yardbird Suite.
“It’s hard to find other people my age with the same passion for jazz that I have and the opportunity to play jazz with all these great high school musicians once or twice a week is so much fun. There aren’t many other cities in Alberta or Canada that have a jazz scene like this, and to be part of it is incredible.”
Mack agrees that the music charts they get can be quite complex.
“It seems like Joel can just throw anything at us. We get a lot of professional, university-level charts that most high school bands would never attempt, but we just practise and we always get it done. And the clinics give us a whole different insight.”
The competition just to get into the band reflects its high profile. Gray has had kids from as far away as Onoway, Devon and Camrose come out to the annual auditions. Even past members have to re-audition to make the cut each year.
The alumni group is a testament to lasting results. Most are professional player-- composers who now lead their own projects, most with at least one recording behind them. Other musicians weren’t able to be involved because their careers have taken them to other cities. Gray estimates that at least 60 past members of the Littlebirds are music teachers.
The alumni band will include Jim Brenan, Jerrold Dubyk, Jeff Hendrick, Dan Davis and Bryan Qu on saxophones, Craig Brenan, Marty Majorowicz, Alden Lowry and (Joel Gray’s wife) Hannah Gray on trombones, Doug Berner, Matt Michelin, Jeremy Maitland, and Chris Hodge on trumpets, pianist Paul Richey, bassist Stephanie Krimms and drummer Efa Etoroma.
Joel Gray is one of the few who isn’t an alumni. He graduated from high school the year the Littlebirds band was created. Ottawa-raised Gray, the child of a jazz trumpeter-father, went on to study at both Grant MacEwan and the University of Alberta before he was drafted into the nowdefunct Tommy Banks Big Band at 23. Today, he plays part-time with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and teaches trumpet and improvisation at Grant MacEwan.
Clearly he loves the job of leading so many gifted young talents on to greater things. The current band breakdown involves players from 14 to 18 years of age, in grades 9 to 12. This year it’s split between four females and 11 males but he says it’s usually closer to 50-50. Last year, his entire sax section was made up of female players.
Gray says the band has become a real proving ground for players planning to go on to post-secondary jazz studies. If they stay in Alberta, that normally means either Grant MacEwan University or Calgary’s Mount Royal University (Mount Royal’s program is now in jeopardy after the university’s board of governors announced it might be dropped to deal with budget cutbacks).
The band director and his players were especially thankful for the sponsorship of the Edmonton Jazz Society and for having a great rehearsal space like the Yardbird.
As Kheroufi puts it: “At a time when the arts seem to be in trouble it’s so great that this is really thriving and building a whole new generation of jazz musicians here. It encourages you to stay and be part of the local scene.”
The current Littlebirds Big Band will perform on their own at the Yardbird Suite on May 26 and 27.