Centennial: The Music of Thad Jones

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Live at the Village Vanguard

Centennial: The Music of Thad Jones is available for streaming and download on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer and other services. Physical CDs are available for purchase on Bandcamp.

Thad Jones was still in his mid-50s when he originally recorded “My Centennial,” little more than halfway to the landmark birthday suggested by the composition’s title – hardly out of character for a trumpeter, composer and bandleader who was always well ahead of his time.

With Joes’ untimely passing in 1986 at the age of 63, the responsibility of commemorating his actual centennial – March 28, 2023, to be exact – falls to the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the now-legendary ensemble that he co-founded in 1966 as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Centennial: The Music of Thad Jones is a vibrant celebration of an unparalleled body of work and an estimable legacy, renewed and revivified every Monday night on the stage of the most revered jazz club on the planet.

“I always say that we have two things going for us that no other band has,” explains bass trombonist Douglas Purviance, who joined the VJO in 1978 and now serves as its business manager. “That's Thad Jones’ music and a steady gig at the Mecca of jazz. It's every jazz musician’s goal to play the Village Vanguard, and we get to do that every week. It's magic every Monday.”

The magic was extended to a weeklong enchantment in February 2024, as it is every year, to celebrate the ensemble’s own anniversary. Late in 1965, Jones -- middle brother of the famed jazz family that also included pianist Hank and drummer Elvin -- and the drummer Mel Lewis had agreed to share the helm of a new big band, booking three nights the following February to test the concept on the stage of the Village Vanguard.

The club’s cantankerous owner, Max Gordon, grudgingly acknowledged the Orchestra’s successful debut, reportedly suggesting, “We’ll keep it going until it tapers off.”

Nearly six decades and more than 2,700 Monday nights later, the Vanguard is still waiting. The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra modernized the big band sound as the world changed through the late 60s and early 70s. Jones’ writing and arranging drew upon the inspiration of the two most iconic bands in jazz history, elegantly interweaving the complexity and elegance of Duke Ellington with the fervor and blues roots of Count Basie, in whose band Jones had launched his career.

“Thad and Mel were two very special individuals,” says Purviance. “The energy that Thad Jones had was so infectious. When he walked into the room, it was electric, and he would stand in front of that band and convey that energy to us with his cues and grunts and encouragement. It was sophisticated yet down home.”

“Thad set the Orchestra up as a small group with a lot of horns,” adds lead alto saxophonist Dick Oatts, the current band’s senior member and artistic director. “The way Thad wrote was just ingenious. It was the future the of the jazz big band tradition. His individuality is the thing that makes everybody want to stay in the band.”

When Jones unexpectedly moved to Copenhagen in 1979 to lead the Danish Radio Big Band, the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra continued, with his former partner’s repertoire still forming the core of its book. But rather than simply allowing the Orchestra to fade into a legacy band, Lewis wisely enlisted Bob Brookmeyer as musical director and composer, expanding and evolving its compositional identity. After Lewis’ death in 1990 the ensemble became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and in 1995 Jim McNeely became the third of its storied resident composers.

With more than 300 compositions now in its book, the VJO prides itself on never repeating the same show from week to week, mixing in a blend of music from throughout its 58-year history. When it came time to honor its founder, however, Oatts decided on a selection that would represent the cornerstones of the band’s identity. “These are the tunes that really put Thad Jones and Mel Lewis on the map,” he says.

The setlist reaches all the way back to the band’s beginnings. “Back Bone,” bookended here by Oatts’ captivating unaccompanied intro and Purviance’s rousing solo turn, was already in the mix for the Orchestra’s debut performance; it opens All My Yesterdays, the essential 2016 release of its earliest recordings. It includes such indelible compositions as the spellbinding ballad “A Child Is Born,” which has become both a jazz standard and a Christmas classic, interpreted by the likes of Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Geri Allen.

“61^st & Rich’It” serves as a tribute to another foundational band member, original Orchestra bassist Richard Davis, who passed away in September 2023. It’s graced by an eloquent turn by current bassist David Wong, who came on board in 2009. It’s one of many subtle nods throughout the performances to the continuity of a band that has enjoyed remarkable longevity within its ranks as well as in becoming the longest-running engagement in the music’s history.

“There’s only been three lead alto players in this band,” points out Dick Oatts, himself the third following such notable predecessors as Jerome Richardson and Jerry Dodgion. Oatts joined the Orchestra in 1977 as a fresh-faced 24-year-old Midwesterner.

“I’m tickled pink that I can carry on this tradition,” Oatts continues. “That's become the tradition of our band. Thad picked Pepper Adams [as baritone saxophonist], and now Gary Smulyan carries on that tradition. Each chair in this band is a legacy chair. You have to commit to showing responsibility, love and respect. I see that in a Gary Smulyan, a John Chudoba, a Dion Tucker, a Ralph Lalama, a Billy Drewes. We have a younger band now, but it's not about finding cookie cutter musicians; it’s about inspiring the personalities that are going to carry this music forward into the next generation.”

The VJO takes that mission seriously, and has helped ensure a rising crop of dedicated rising stars in part through its relationship with Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Centennial is being released via BCM&D Records, the school’s official imprint; Temple’s Director Jazz Studies and Chair of Instrumental Studies, Terell Stafford, has played trumpet with the Orchestra for more than 20 years, while Oatts is a longtime faculty member.

“This is a dream come true for me,” Stafford says of bringing his two worlds together. The album’s release coincides with the Orchestra’s establishment as artists-in-residence at Temple, bringing members to the school for classes and performances, and opening the Vanguard’s doors to students on Monday nights. “The Village Vanguard has essentially become another classroom for our students,” says Boyer College Dean Robert Stroker.

The same goes for the band members themselves, it seems. “It's a learning process every week,” Stafford says. “I can't say I ever show up on Monday just expecting to play. I learn something new, I hear something new, I experience something new, I meet new people. I get butterflies every time I walk in the doors of the club.”

“There's no feeling in the whole world like sitting in the middle of that band,” echoes Douglas Purviance. “I’m so honored to be a part of it and I feel like I have to do everything in my power to keep it going.”

With his tenure in the band nearing the halfway point of its own centennial, Dick Oatts is still firmly focused on the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra’s future, never its past – however historic that past may be. “I became the artistic director because I showed a love and dedication to the music over 46 years,” he concludes. “But I think everybody in the band is an artistic director in a way, because we’ve all taken on the responsibility to ensure that this legacy is going to stay true for the next hundred years.”

--Shaun Brady
Philadelphia, June 2024

Produced with generous support from Austin B. Frazier Jr. and Sonia R. Frazier.

Performers

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Dick Oatts, artistic director
Douglas Purviance, business manager

SAXOPHONES
Dick Oatts, alto
Billy Drewes, alto
Rich Perry, tenor
Ralph Lalama, tenor
Gary Smulyan, baritone

TRUMPETS
John Chudoba
Brian Pareschi
Terell Stafford
Scott Wendholt

TROMBONES
Dion Tucker
Jason Jackson
Robert Edwards
Douglas Purviance, bass

RHYTHM
Adam Birnbaum, piano
David Wong, bass
John Riley, drums

BCM&D Records Founder and Executive Producer: Robert Stroker
Producer: David Pasbrig
Recording Engineers: David Pasbrig, Tyler McDiarmid
Assistant Recording Engineers: Nick Kruse, Isaac Kraus
Mix Engineer: David Pasbrig
Mastering Engineer: Airshow Mastering
Album Designer: Pao Navarro

Recorded live February 7-8, 2024 at the Village Vanguard, New York City.

Produced with generous support from Austin B. Frazier Jr. and Sonia R. Frazier.