OSU Jazz Orchestra: Angular Tuesday

The splendid Oklahoma State University Jazz Orchestra seldom pauses for breath on Angular Tuesday, its third album under director Tommy Poole. The ensemble enters as though shot from a cannon on Don Menza's frenzied "Time Check," and keeps on swinging and swaying through a lively program that encompasses sunlit compositions by Maria Schneider, Bob Mintzer, Thad Jones, Don Grolnick, Matt Catingub and Matt Harris, plus the animated and funky title selection, written by saxophonist Matthew Howell in 2021, his senior year at OSU.

It is always a pleasure to hear brass, winds and rhythm working as hard as they can to push a band toward its goal, and Poole gives every section its due, starting with the saxophones on "Time Check" (their tongues must have been on the floor following that workout) and continuing with the trombones on "Angular Tuesday" (there is a great acrobatic soli at midpoint) and the trumpets on Mintzer's rhythmically strong "Latin Dance" and elsewhere. As for the rhythm section, it shines on every number, firmly anchored by drummers Cade Crone or Conor Gass and adding superb hand percussion by Nicholas Visbal on "Latin Dance."

Among the soloists, tenor saxophonist Kyle Fisher and guitarist Eric Eppstein are heard most often. Fisher acquits himself well on "Time Check," "Latin Dance," Schneider's sinuous "Wyrgly" (ushered in by Crone's deft brushwork) and Grolnick's luminous "Pools," as does Eppstein on "Time Check," "Wyrgly," Catingub's well-grooved "Blues and the Abscessed Tooth" and Harris' dynamic closer, "Mira Mira." Trombonists Ethan Do, Corey Burton and Jonathan Hanna have their moments (with Burton and Hanna trading well-aimed volleys on "Abscessed Tooth"), while sopranos Hayden Rhoades and Abraham Nunez, pianist Dylan Shadoan and bassist Luciano Quezada—whose firm metronomic pulse all but steals the show on "Blues and the Abscessed Tooth"—earn their stripes in more abridged but no less effective appearances.

In the end, however, it is the admirable and earnest section work on every number that raises Angular Tuesday above the norm and signals even greater promise for the OSU Jazz Orchestra and the university's Jazz Studies program, which continues its upward climb under Poole's able direction. It hasn't reached the summit yet but is edging ever closer.

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