This is a great weekend for RVA big band music. On Friday night, local legend Doug Richards leads Laura Ann Singh and his ensemble in a Virginia Commonwealth University performance including his brilliant recompositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim classics. On Saturday, Butcher Brown bassist Andrew Jay Randazzo leads his large band for two sets in a first-ever collaboration with vocalist Deau Eyes at Révéler Experiences. The alignment of dates is accidental, but the two groups represent an RVA lineage. “If it wasn’t for Doug Richards,” Randazzo says. “My band would not exist.”
Richards founded the VCU Jazz Program. In the early years, it was a professional finishing school, with now-renowned musicians (Steve Wilson, Clarence Penn, Alvester Garnett) moving through a national competition-winning student ensemble. During the same period, the Richards-led Great American Music Ensemble [G.A.M.E] was the house big band at the Kennedy Center. At that time, the great jazz critic Martin Williams hailed Richards as “the most original writer for big band since [Miles Davis collaborator] Gil Evans.” When Richards stepped back from that position in the early 2000s, the large group energy shifted outside the school, to a continuum including the Devil’s Workshop, Brunswick, Rick Reiger’s RVA Big Band and Randazzo’s current group.
Richards has continued to create memorable music, releasing “It’s All in the G.A.M.E.” featuring Rene Marie, writing the “Intercontinental Concerto” for trumpeter Rex Richardson, recording a set of Thelonious Monk arrangements at Spacebomb, and, most recently, “Through A Sonic Prism: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim,” featuring Laura Ann Singh. But in large part because of the virtuosic demands of his writing, live performances of his work are rare. “When Doug announces a show,” says Randazzo, “It’s going on the calendar.”
Friday’s performance at VCU is something of a career retrospective. “I decided to open with a variety of the G.A.M.E pieces that we did at the Kennedy Center and on the recording, Rene Marie,” says Richards. “Essentially all of those tunes are from the ‘Great American Songbook,’ Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington and even Glenn Miller because we are opening with my treatment of ‘In the Mood.’ It is quite a radical departure, but I think most people who know the original will appreciate the outlandish treatment I gave it. There will also be a piece of mine based on the chord changes of ‘Lady Be Good.’ It is a real smorgasbord of standards.”
The second half of the concert focuses on Jobim. The iconic Brazilian composer famously combined traditional sambas with jazz to create bossa nova. His songs have become part of the repertoire, something Richards always approaches in an anything-but-predictable way. The new record is dense with ideas both robust and delicate. “I knew what I had written was rhythmically quite a departure from the standard samba language. I understood it was going to take quite a bit of rehearsal and concentration,” Richards explains. “I was not trying to be difficult; it just came to me that way. And I am delighted how it turned out.”
Having Laura Ann Singh as the vocalist was a transformative asset. She is both an accomplished singer of popular songs and has a deep, multilingual knowledge of Brazilian music.
Saturday’s performance by the R4nd4zzo Big Band will be more of a party. It will also feature covers of retro popular music, albeit of a later and more rock-oriented generation. “We’ll be doing a lot of ’70s covers and some Deau Eyes originals,” Randazzo says. “There will be a special quest hopping up in the middle of the show. I want it to be kind of a surprise.”
While primarily known for being a bassist in Butcher Brown, the Charles Owens Trio and anyone else lucky enough to book him, Randazzo has always had a love of large ensemble playing. He loved the camaraderie of playing with the opera, or in the orchestra pit of a musical. His 2012 senior recital at VCU [which Doug Richards said at the time was the best he had heard] had virtually the entire jazz orchestra on stage playing one of his arrangements. He played with the RVA Big Band and in a brief resurrection of the Devil’s Workshop. Since debuting with a “Charlie Brown Christmas” concert in December 2017, his big band has been recorded backing Owens and Butcher Brown and continues to come together when circumstances allow.
The success of Butcher Brown has made opportunities rarer. “I’ve been looking forward to this concert since Ali [Thibodeau, aka Deau Eyes] texted me when I was just getting off a plane, in the baggage claim section of Austin Airport, I called her back really quick.” Randazzo says.
For the past few years, Thibodeau has become one of the highest energy, most eclectic performers in the area. She has her own band, with a heavy reliance on original songs and well-chosen covers. At this year’s Daydream Fest, she did her set with a string quartet. She also collaborated with Ant the Symbol, has her own Christmas benefit show, and serves as a mentor/teacher to young players with her Deau Studio. The R4nd4zzo gig is the second of her eight “Tour de Richmond” performances during the last week of the month. “She is a ball of energy,” Randazzo says.
He started writing the arrangements on Butcher Brown’s European summer tour, he says, and just finished the last a few days ago. There is a rehearsal the Wednesday before the gig. “It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Randazzo promises. “Some people hear ‘big band’ and think Tommy Dorsey, something old timey. Bu this is a modern big band, for the casual live music enjoyer. There are going to be 18 people onstage. It is going to get loud. And because I love getting a whole lot of people together, I am probably going to get very emotional. Who knows if we will do it again? This may be a one-time thing.”
The bands on Friday and Saturday represent two distinct approaches. Richard’s is very much a grand master’s realization of a sophisticated artistic vision. Randazzo’s, while inspired by Richards, is an RVA all-star party. They will be quite different experiences, united by the synergetic potential of cooperative sonic virtuosity.
“Through a Sonic Prism: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim,” featuring the Doug Richards Orchestra with vocalist Laura Ann Singh performs Friday at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. All seats are reserved. Tickets are up to $25.
Deau Eyes and the R4nd4zzo Big Band play two shows at Reveler on Saturday, September 21st at 8 and 10 PM. Tickets are $20 to$30
