Review: THE STEVEN FEIFKE BIG BAND Puts On A Great Show For Steve's Mom (& All The Rest) At Birdland

Today's Jazz Can Blare Or It Can Sooth. This Big Band Does It All.

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

"How would you like to go hear a genuine big band at Birdland?" says Stephen Mosher to your rainbow boy. "We love big band era music! Can't wait!" says we. Oh, the sounds of Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman... were NONE of the sounds we heard early Sunday evening when we took up our table at the legendary hot spot. What we did here from THE Steven Feifke BIG BAND was a capitalized JAZZZZZZZZZ - real JAZZZZZZZZZ for the modern-day and a modern audience. Yes, there were a couple of classics from the age of Artie Shaw and the like, all in the voice of supreme jazz soprano Martina DaSilva who's deft and surprising renditions of EASY TO LOVE and ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE gave new sound, gave new meaning to both the ancient tunes, and gave Bobby life in the listening. A life made fuller by the discovery of talent and music that had heretofore (what? Bobby knows old words!) gone undiscovered under our rainbow... and speaking of... Never has Bobby seen such a fabulous rainbow of attractive people all on one stage at the same time. Make no mistake my lambkins, THE Steven Feifke BIG BAND is peopled with people of all backgrounds who definitely qualify as eye-candy whatever your tastes including the charming and funny Mr. Feifke himself! Tall-ish, adorable nerd-hot with glasses, collegiate fratboy hair, and broad shoulders in his nice suit, the only thing prettier than Feifke was his music. This bandleader's original compositions are for the lovers of JAZZZZZZ and those who don't yet know they love it. With a tight blend forged by hard work and the ear of their composer-arranger-conductor, this big band (17 pieces+DaSilva) raised their volume but never blared... never assaulted the listeners, but was aggressive enough at all times to rise above any easy listening/smooth jazz label. A live audience for Feifke needs its ears and its heart to feel what this band was laying down on the night and since little Bobby was probably one of the WORST Baritone Saxophone players to put a foot on the football field in a high school marching band, our appreciation of what is truly great comes as much from the heart as it does from our tin ears.

Fine jazz moves and flows like the tide my dearlings - sometimes roughly dissonant sometimes gently harmonized but never ceasing to roll in and out as a solid band of players listen to each other, take cues from their leader, and pass solos amongst themselves giving solitary members a chance to play as they play. Whether the solos came from alto, tenor, or baritone sax, trombone, trumpet, or flugelhorn, upright bass, drums, or Feifke's mellifluous keys, each instrumental soloist stood up and stood out and then sat back down to blend back in to one of the tightest, harmonious sounding jazz bands in the free world. Of special note for yours truly were Feifke's original title THE SPHINX with a stunning tenor sax solo by Kevin Sun and their leader's arrangement of the theme to the movie COCO with Bijon Watson going from flugelhorn to trumpet in under 6 seconds.

Finally, our favorite of the evening combining the old with the new was the aforementioned ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE with the magical vocals of Martina DaSilva and some of the most unexpected musical stylings within the arrangement. Calling this his "Stalker take" on the Broadway standard, Feifke added a pulsing bassline from the lower instruments in an almost "Peter Gunn-Like" beat that lent real urgency to Martina's singing and an almost competitive insistence between Jimmy O'Connell's trombone and Andrew Gutauskas Bari Sax solos as Eliza Doolittle's stalkers. We must also call out Alexa Tarantino's Alto saxaphoning on her own during her fearless leader's fearless arrangement of Joe Henderson's INNER URGE - a state of sex always best expressed by a sax. All in all, given the success of the evening, we know that Steven F's mom, who was in the audience and looking like she was having a blast, was proud of her boy the bandleader.

Clearly my loves, this is a rave and it must be so because the evening spent with THE Steven Feifke BIG BAND has turned little Bobby from an occasional jazz listener into a fan that will seek this music out more and more, and for that, we must give THE Steven Feifke BIG BAND our full...

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows - Check Them Out!

Read All About The Band On The Webby: HERE

Follow Feifke On His Insta: HERE

And Look Up His YouTubes: HERE

Tweet Him On His Twitters: HERE

Ande Followe On Ye Old FaceBooke: HERE

Listen To Feifke And His Band On The Spotifies: HERE

And Pick Their Apple Itunes: HERE

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick