Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band

Released September 23, 2003

Grammy Nominee Best Large Jazz EnsembleAlbum 2004

YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mHc6-kgQug6_qGzJ252X0j4ibWq0n-7p8

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/58spPJqNoaT1isRyd1EhEG?si=JMu4mIp_RJ62_3rOLSruSQ

About:

Gordon Goodwin aspired to lead a big band from a time before he can even remember. His position at the forefront of 18-piece Big Phat Band, one of the most innovative and versatile collectives of the past thirty years, speaks reams about his seemingly limitless talents as an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader.

“Every time we make a record or play a show, we’re trying to tap into that fundamental, universal rhythm of big band music that seems to transcend the generations,” says Goodwin. “We’ll get middle school and high school kids coming to our shows and buying our CDs, we’ll get their parents, and we’ll get their grandparents. What other kind of music has that range of demographic appeal?”

Born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1954, he moved with his family to California when he was only two. At a very early age, so his mother told him, he would tune in to The Mickey Mouse Club on TV and stand in the middle of his living room, pretending to conduct the orchestra. It seemed innocent enough, but it was just the beginning.

By the time he reached grade school, he was studying piano and saxophone – two instruments on which he excels to this day. While his classmates in junior high and high school were tuning in to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Motown and other iconic rock and pop artists of the ’60s, Goodwin was charting his own big band compositions and grooving to icons of a different era: Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich and Thad Jones.

By the early ’70s, he was able to establish a stronger connection to the soundtrack of his generation via bands like Earth Wind & Fire, Blood Sweat & Tears and others that grafted elements of jazz and swing to the basic components of rock and pop. During high school, he played in youth orchestras that came out on top of just about every competition in the region, including the Monterey Jazz Festival

During his college years at Cal State Northridge, he spent his days studying orchestration and counterpoint, and his nights playing piano and sax in a rock band whose repertoire included hits by some of the aforementioned jazz-rock powerhouse bands. After college, he spent a few years during the late ’70s and early ’80s providing music for various aspects of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. The gig led to opportunities to compose and arrange for TV series produced by Disney, Warner Brothers and others.

“I was pretty diversified throughout the ’80s and ’90s,” he says. “I’d do a TV show here, maybe some musical theater there, then I’d go play a bar mitzvah, then I’d go on the road and conduct for Johnny Mathis.”

Mathis, who once called Goodwin “a man of exquisite musical tastes,” was just the tip of the iceberg. Over the past couple decades, Goodwin has composed, arranged and/or conducted for a host of artists, including Ray Charles, Christina Aguilera, Natalie Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme and Quincy Jones. On the big screen, his scoring and orchestration can be heard on dozens of films, including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Get Smart, National Treasure, The Incredibles, Remember the Titans, Armageddon andGone in 60 Seconds.

The gigs were steady, the work was interesting, the pay was good and the multiple Emmy awards during the period were a testament to the quality of Goodwin’s skills as a composer and arranger. But something was missing, he recalls.

“It was great, and yet it wasn’t me,” he says. “I started thinking, ‘Was this going to be my legacy? Was I going to be the guy who jumped around to all these gigs and had a little big-band project on the side? Or is big-band jazz the thing that I really believe in and really want to be committed to?’ I realized that it was, and I started to think that, ‘Maybe I have a little more road behind me than I have ahead of me, so maybe it’s time to start getting it done.’ And that was when I started to get serious about the Big Phat Band.”

Swingin’ for the Fences, the band’s debut recording released in 2000, featured guest artist Arturo Sandoval and Eddie Daniels. It made history as the first commercially available DVD-Audio title ever released and the first DVD-Audio title to receive two Grammy nominations.XXL, the Big Phat Band’s followup recording in 2003, featured a series of high-profile guest artists, including Mathis, Michael Brecker, vocalist Brian McKnight and Take 6. The album garnered three GRAMMY nominations: Best Large Ensemble Album, Best Instrumental Composition (“Hunting Wabbits”) and Best Instrumental Arrangement with Vocals (“Comes Love,” with a guest appearance by McKnight). XXL won the Surround Sound Award for Best Made for Surround Sound Title.

Track Listing:

1. High Maintenance (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Eric Marienthal / Andrew Martin 6:17

2. A Game of Inches (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Michael Brecker 7:21

3. Comes Love (Lew Brown / Sam H. Stept / Charles Tobias) featuring: Take 6 / Brian McKnight 5:31

4. Thad Said No (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Eddie Daniels 5:45

5. Hunting Wabbits (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Gordon Goodwin / Andrew Martin 6:20

6. The Quiet Corner (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Gordon Goodwin 6:20

7. Horn of Puente (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Wayne Bergeron 6:18

8. It’s All Right With Me (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Take 6 / Eric Marienthal 4:44

9. The Jazz Police (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Brian Scanlon / Carl Verheyen 5:19

10. Mozart 40th Symphony in GM (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Eddie Daniels 8:07

11. What Sammy Said (Gordon Goodwin) featuring: Brian Scanlon 7:50

12. Let the Good Times Roll (Fleecie Moore / Sam Theard featuring: Johnny Mathis) 3:31

Personnel:

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band:

Gordon Goodwin: piano, saxophones, arrangements

Eric Marienthal: alto and soprano saxophones, flute (1, 2, 4-11)

Sal Lozano: alto and soprano saxophones, flute

Brian Scanlon: tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute

Jeff Driscoll: tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute

Jay Mason: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, flute

John Yoakum: alto saxophone (3, 12)

Wayne Bergeron: trumpet

Dan Fornero: trumpet (2, 5-7, 11)

Bob Summers: trumpet (1, 3, 4, 10, 12)

Stan Martin: trumpet (1, 2, 4-7, 10, 11)

Dan Savant: trumpet

Pete De Siena: trumpet (3, 12)

Larry Hall: trumpet (8, 9)

Andy Martin: trombone

Alex Iles: trombone (1, 2, 4-11)

Steve Holtman: trombone (1, 2, 4-7, 10, 11)

Charlie Morillas: trombone (3, 8, 9, 12)

Nick Lane: trombone (3, 12)

Craig Ware: bass trombone

Richard Shaw: acoustic bass and electric bass

Grant Geissman: guitar (1, 2, 4-7, 10, 11)

Carl Verheyen: guitar (3, 8, 9, 12)

Bernie Dressel: drums (1, 4, 8-10)

Ray Brinker: drums (3, 12)

Luis Conte: percussion

Guests:

Michael Brecker: saxophone

Johnny Mathis: vocals

Brian McKnight: vocals

Take 6: vocals

Peter Erskine: drums (2, 5-7, 11)

Recorded at Angel Song Studios, Glendale, CA

Capitol Records, Hollywood, CA

Conwood Studios, Hollywood, CA

Rimrock Studios, Thousand Oaks, CA

Studio Magnifico, Thousand Oaks, CA

The Back Room, Glendale, CA

Vertical Sound, Nashville, TN

Produced by Gordon Goodwin and Dan Savant

Executive Produced by John Trickett, Jeff Dean and Bob Michaels

Review:

We still have a few weeks before he hear Auld Lang Syne, but I’m going to vote early. I hold in my hands the Album of the Year.

XXL is the Big Phat Band’s second album. Its first, Swingin’ For the Fences, was nominated for two Grammys two years ago. Composer/arranger Gordon Goodwin has won three Emmys for his work on cartoons. He formed the band as a studio unit, but it now performs twice a month in the Los Angeles area.

XXL features a number of guests. Johnny Mathis stops the show on (no kidding) “Let the Good Times Roll.” Take 6 contribute their Singers Unlimited sound to “It’s All Right With Me,” and back up Brian McKnight on “Comes Love.” Michael Brecker gives his very recognizable solo to “A Game of Inches.” Eddie Daniels contributes clarinet solos to Mozart’s “40th Symphony in G Minor” and the Goodwin original “Thad Said No,” which is a reference to the fact that Thad Jones would not let Daniels take a clarinet solo when he was a member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.

All of the remaining songs are Goodwin compositions. The bluesy shuffle “High Maintenance” is reminiscent of Stan Kenton’s “Intermission Riff,” featuring Eric Marienthal on alto sax and Andy Martin on trombone. “Hunting Wabbits” is Goodwin’s tribute to Carl Stalling, who wrote the music for Looney Tunes cartoons. “The Quiet Corner” is meant to evoke early Herbie Hancock with a mellow vibe and softer textures. The Latin piece “Horn of Puente” is dedicated to the late Tito Puente and features Wayne Bergeron, whom Goodwin calls “clearly the best lead trumpet player in LA.” “The Jazz Police” reminds me of the soundtrack of The Man From UNCLE. It’s a nod to Quincy Jones, Hank Mancini and the 60’s cop-rock genre. “What Sammy Said” is a slow Basie-style blues, dedicated to Sammy Nestico.

XXL is available on both CD and DVD-Audio. ( Swingin’ For The Fences was the first commercially-available DVD-Audio.) The DVD offers 5.1 surround sound, videos of the recording sessions, additional liner notes and artist quotes, browse-able photos and the ability to isolate instruments on four of the tracks.

Russell Moon (AllAboutJazz)