For those attending tonight’s encore performance of the Byron Stripling concert with the Signature Symphony (8 p.m. at the VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education), plan on having a pretty darn joyous time.
The concert is truly “An Evening with Byron Stripling,” with the trumpeter leading the Signature Symphony Big Band (four saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, along with bassist extraordinaire Jim Bates) and two of his own colleagues (Bobby Floyd on piano and Hammond B3 organ, Robert Breithaupt on drums) in a salute to the music of New Orleans.
Stripling is a performer in the Louis Armstrong mode – he’s out to give the audience a good time, to use music and words, even a little silliness and sentimentality, to lift people up, make them happy.
At the same time, he’s very serious about the music he plays, which means there were many moments throughout the show where the players got to cut loose and show what they can do.
Keyboardist Floyd, in particular, was astounding – his work on several hymns during the concert showed him to be a powerful and inventive improviser. He took, for example, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” from single percussive notes that sounded like a child tapping out a melody on the keyboard to elaborate, complex sheets of sound, before settling into a happy, familiar groove to make room for the rest of the band.
He worked a similar sort of musical magic on “Amazing Grace,” this time on the organ, and done in tribute to the people of New Orleans and all that they have endured in the last few years.
Stripling himself used “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” as a technical showcase, demonstrating all the sounds and effects he can get out of his trumpet, as well as the sweetly singing tone that is usual hallmark of his playing. And thanks to the PACE’s acoustics, which are lively to say the least, it often sounded as if a clone of Stripling’s was matching him note-for-note from the back of the hall on many songs.
He got some laughs from audience and band for his take on why he “has an issue” with the blues – namely, that all you can understand from some blues singers are the final words of every song, “Oh, yeah!” – and for dedicating the jaunty “You Rascal You” to the University of Texas’ football team and coach.
The 17-piece Signature Big Band tightened up considerably after the first couple of numbers, and players such as clarinetist and alto sax soloist Gary Linde, tenor saxophonist Rich Gable and trombonist Ceth Barnett more than held their own with the visitors.
