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by Seth Rogovoy
PITTSFIELD
Before a nearly-full house in the auditorium at the Berkshire Museum on Saturday night, the Paradise City Jazz Band from Northampton gave a rousing concert of Dixieland and swing-era jazz. In two sets, the 14- year-old group performed some blues, some New Orleans- style funk, a few standards and numbers associated with Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
The six-piece band, led by cornetist Dave Pinardi, was supplemented for the evening by guest saxophonist and clarinetist Charlie Weyant of Connecticut. The addition of Weyant's clarinet allowed the group, which also includes trombonist Tim Atherton, to assay some Dixieland-style tunes, on which cornet, clarinet and trombone dance around each other. While this style is often a favorite of audiences, the band's attempts at this difficult polyphony lacked clarity and focus. Rather than nimble dancing, the flat-footed horns tended to step on each other.
The evening's high points, in fact, came whenever former band member David Huxtable, of Dalton, sat in with the group on banjo and guitar. Huxtable brought a sorely needed center to the music. His presence, both musical and visual, was dynamic, and the energy level on stage and in the audience noticeably wavered along with Huxtable's comings and goings.
Huxtable added some odd sonorities on "Lime House Blues," which brought the concert to life four songs into it. And he lent an earthy sophistication and wit to "Hello Central, Give Me Doctor Jazz," a New Orleans-style funk novelty.
After intermission, Huxtable rejoined the group for a guitar duet with Jay Messer, with rhythmic accompaniment by pianist Tom McClung, bassist Richard Downs and drummer Phil Ori. Huxtable's cool, smooth, Wes Montgomery-influenced playing contrasted sharply with Messer's more angular, pointed approach.
The group then mutated into a quartet, when Tardini (who throughout the evening was a wry, soft-spoken front man with a casual bearing) took front and center with the rhythm section and offered a meditative, plangent ballad by Ray Noble. Atherton and Weyant then traded places with Tardini, but the results, on "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," were again vague and without distinction.
Huxtable returned for a final Dixieland tune and the obligatory encore of "Take the ‘A’ Train," both full of vigor and brightness. Of the other players, one would have liked to have heard more from pianist McClung, who displayed hints of a lyrical, modern sensibility.
While it is a rare treat to hear jazz of any style in the Berkshires at any time other than during the annual four-day Tanglewood Jazz Festival (and while the audience was clearly thrilled by this performance) one would hope that a museum program would attempt something more adventurous if less commercial. After all, if we cannot rely on our arts organizations to encourage innovation, then what do we have them for?
(This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on February 6, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.)
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