Don’t let the mild-mannered look fool you: Fred Hess plays a mean, mean saxophone.
Spread across a three-tiered stage under the dim lights of back lounge sat 16 musicians armed with a flotilla of brass and string. The appearance of a big band in a small venue has the feel of a small army ready to due battle, not with the audience, as it turned out, but amongst one another.
Lead by longtime Colorado resident and saxophone veteran Fred Hess, the played an hour-and-a-half set that relied on a mix of subtle sounds and an undercurrent of cacophony. This sort of jazz is almost orchestral due to the sheer size of the band and the long, thematic sections of quiet and loud, and focus and improvisation.
With Hess’ wife and friends providing a spirited front row cheering section, the band played cuts from their latest album “Hold On,” released in August on ٲ’s house label, Dazzle Records. Several band members are notable names in their own right: longtime Hess collaborator and trumpeter Ron Miles sat in the rear taking some impressive solos and Brooklyn-based bass player Ken Filiano stood bald-headed and squinty-eyed, muscling his bass with mastery.
Song three of the set was perhaps the most rollicking and effective despite the eye-rolls, mid-song laughter and shaking heads of nearly every player. Besides Hess. An original called “Home Base,” Hess introduced this one with a bit of self-mockery: “This is our jazz/rock fusion song; our requisite experimental tune,” he said as the band chuckled knowingly. As this one got rolling, it seemed this was a song only the writer could like — sort of like a face only a mother could love. This one also began the seeming in-fights between band members during solos or sections of isolated instrumentation. Many a “WTF?” glance was seen being passed around the stage as extremely high pitched trumpet playing later met soft saxophone.
Hess has a tradition of musical, narrated storytelling about a fictional family called the “Clefs.” The latest installment from “Hold On” called “The Clefs Visit Grandma’s” deals with Altoid Clef’s baby son on a brutal trek to granny’s where an influx of locusts, an abduction and finally safety highlight the journey. Sound odd? It was. With Hess standing and speaking into the microphone while the band did their best to mimic the visuals of the journey, sounds like “wham!” “crash” and “whizz bang!” came spilling out. Experimental doesn’t even begin to describe this one. But such was the theme of the night.
Next up was, as Hess called it, a sewing together of some notable John Coltrane solos from the legend’s long career. This too had an experimental tone but the band seemed more buttoned up, maybe in tribute to the song’s inspiration. Trumpet player Al Hood soared the entire set — he got more props than any other player through the night — but it was on this one where he really took off; his playing was so precise, crisp, and confident it earned ‘solo of the night’ with ease. The entire band seemed most into this cut and sax player Dominic Lalli closed the number with a stand-up solo at warp speed.
This “War of the Worlds” set concluded with fitting discord: Hess led the band in a random, all-at-once, five-notes-only encore.
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Craig Randall is a Boulder-based writer and PR pro with an identity crisis. He credits both “Let Me Love You Down” and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” as life-changing tracks. Check out .
