What could be better than some terrific straight ahead jazz on a lovely fall afternoon? Nothing comes to my mind! What a blast to have the likes of super professional jazz master, George Young & Company, aka The Hollywood jazz Quartet, in Santa Barbara. Playing a mixture of standards and great originals, it was truly a feast for the sometimes jazz starved audience. George has played with so many jazz giants live and on recordings, it can make your head swim AND he choose the very best sidemen to accompany him for this concert. Moving seamlessly, between the alto, tenor and soprano saxophones, he lead us through a wonderful selection of tunes. With the opener, “The Song Is You”, when the band “traded 4’s” with super drummer Mark Z. Stevens, and it was obvious that we had a fabulous afternoon of jazz ahead. Amazing pianist, Ross Margitza, plunked down some exciting cords and runs on that one and George gave the guys plenty time to take some long and marvelous solos. The band handled Stanley Turrentine’s melodic tune, “Sugar,” to perfection and as a tribute to his mentor, the band played an original by George that captured the “Turrentine Sound” .
There were so many wonderful selections that afternoon that I can’t list them all, but one of my favorites was the lovely “Chelsea Bridge” by Billy Strayhorn with George playing wonderful solos on his soprano sax. Another standout was the Miles Davis standard, “All Blues”, with great solos by pianist, Margzita and bassist, Harvey Newmark. As the afternoon progressed, I thought, how fortunate we are to have such fabulous musicians to come to play just for us.
Photos by Mark McDonald