New London Big Band, ECSO team up to delight Garde crowd

— How often do you get a contemporary composer premiering and playing his pieces, backed by a symphony orchestra in the city where he works?

Well, that’s what about 900 people at the Garde Arts Center got to hear Saturday as Sean Nelson, chief musician for the U.S. Coast Guard Band, brought his New London Big Band to join forces with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra for a concert of jazz favorites and original pieces, including the world premiere of the orchestral version of Nelson’s arrangement of the U.S. Space Force anthem, “Semper Supra.”

It was a joyous concert throughout, starting with the whacky John Harbison piece “Remembering Gatsby (Foxtrot for Orchestra)” that alternated between drunken dissonance and a jazzy tune.

“It’s a delightful piece,” ECSO music director and conductor Toshiyuki Shimada told the audience, saying he particularly liked the “Charleston part.” Shimada, always happy to pick up the microphone to impart an interesting nugget of information, acted as a sort of emcee this night, perhaps inspired by what he called “a big audience for January.”

The ECSO played the first half of the concert, including Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town” and Gershwin’s “The Man I Love,” with a brash and sexy swing heavy on muted trumpets and punchy trombones.

“No one wrote jazz for a symphony orchestra like Bernstein,” Shimada commented, joking how he tried to emulate the master’s swiveling hips to convey the feel of the music.

And Shimada had hearts melting with a new Tom Myron arrangement of the romantic Gershwin tune with its familiar cascading melody.

But it was the second half of the concert that many had come to see, featuring the city’s own 17-piece big band that formed in 2016 and has a regular presence at the Social Bar + Kitchen on Bank Street. Unlike many ECSO concerts, this one was attended by a good number of school-age children who could enjoy the sonic delights of an evening full of syncopated dance rhythms and hot brass tunes, not to mention an electric guitar and electric keyboard.

It all started with Nelson’s “Social Hour,” which has become the New London Big Band’s signature tune. Here, in true big band style, several soloists had turns at propelling the fluid swing melody forward.

“It’s so good to be back,” Nelson told the crowd, referencing the band’s first performance with the ECSO in 2020, just before COVID lockdowns hit.

The band and the ECSO combined beautifully on a rendition of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” and Gershwin’s “Embraceable You,” as well as on Nelson’s debut as a symphony conductor when they played the U.S. Space Force anthem.

They also played together on a new Nelson arrangement of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the score completed so recently, according to Shimada, that “the ink is still wet.”

Sometimes the big band played on its own, as it did for “Brisket and Beans,” a fun food romp composed by Nelson and featuring some fantastic solos. The soloists throughout the night were outstanding, including trumpeters Tom Brown (also the ECSO trumpet principal) and Renee McGee, saxophonists Erik Elligers, Tyler Wilkins and Cedric Mayfield and pianist Jen Allen.

At one point, Shimada and Nelson compared notes on their musical beginnings, with Shimada admitting he hated playing the violin.

“There’s nothing more exciting than playing in a big band,” Shimada said. “I’m kind of jealous.”