Swing to come alive Saturday night

Take timeless, accessible dance music performed by two IU student big bands and add two distinguished professional vocalists and two accomplished Jacobs School of Music jazzmen.

The finished product: this year’s annual Big Band Extravaganza.

The Jacobs School of Music will present this year’s Big Band Extravaganza, “When Swing Was King,” at 8 p.m. Saturday  at the Musical Arts Center.

IU jazz faculty members David Baker and Brent Wallarab will lead the student big bands for the Extravaganza.   

This year’s concert will feature music from some of the swing era’s most prolific big bands, including Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington.

“During the Second World War in the 1940s, it was the time when jazz music was the most popular it’s ever been,” Baker said. “In times of stress, people turn to music, and swing music is about as good as it gets when people want to dance again. We’re revisiting that era for the extravaganza.”

The concert will feature guest vocalists Delores King Williams and Everett Greene, who also performed last year.

“Williams and Green are just amazing,” Wallarab said. “They really know how to connect with the audience. Plus the young musicians in the band, the IU
students, are really having a good time with this, and you’ll be able to see that as they’re playing it.”

This year marks the first Big Band Extravaganza for Wallarab as a full-time Jacobs faculty member. He is the lead trombonist in Baker’s Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and a national authority on swing history.

“I think (Wallarab) really makes an effort not just to make us sound good but to educate us on what it will be like as a musician in the real world,” said sophomore Alex McNeilly, an alto saxophone player. “He spends a lot of his time just studying music from the swing era, so he’s really knowledgeable. He really cares about the music and really gets excited about it, and it’s just great for us to learn from him.”

Even though the music featured in the extravaganza is decades old, don’t expect it to be inaccessible, Wallarab said.

“This music has really survived the test of time,” he said. “It’s still recognizable. There’s always people from every generation who discover this music and become attracted to it. Most pop music is kind of disposable and isn’t considered that much once it’s run its course. But swing still has a tremendous appeal.”

The main reason why Baker puts such an emphasis on jazz music is to reveal America’s musical roots, he said.  

“One thing that’s very important for us and me as a teacher is that people have to know their heritage,” Baker said. “It would be like somebody who was born in Austria not knowing about Mozart. If we don’t keep it alive, I’m not sure what that says about
our respect for our history and our culture.”

Baker’s efforts for jazz have not gone unnoticed.

“I really admire David in every regard – as a musician, composer, teacher and mentor,”
Wallarab said. “He’s been one of the greatest influences in my life, both professionally and personally. It’s a thrill to be considered a colleague of his, yet at the same time he’s somebody that I continue to learn from.”