{"id":5069,"date":"2012-09-15T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-15T19:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/?p=5069"},"modified":"2012-10-17T17:46:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T00:46:10","slug":"big-band-love-affair-launched-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/2012\/09\/15\/big-band-love-affair-launched-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Big-band love affair launched here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Crawford High student Dennis Mackrel honored to keep Count Basie\u2019s music alive<\/h2>\n

By Beth Wood| Special to the U-T\u00a0utsandiego.com<\/a><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dennis Mackrel<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0spent barely a year or so attendingCrawford High School<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in San Diego, but it was there that the leader of the internationally acclaimed\u00a0Count Basie Orchestra<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0experienced a musical epiphany \u2014 one that spurred him on to a very successful career as a drummer, arranger and composer for big bands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t express how grateful I am that I lived in San Diego. When I first went to high school, I didn\u2019t like big bands at all. They sounded old,\u201d said Mackrel from his home office in Woodstock, N.Y., where he lives with his wife, Annette, and their two teenagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t understand big bands, although I liked them on records. I remember the first time I played in Crawford\u2019s big band, it flipped a switch for me \u2014 \u2018This is cool\u2019 \u2014 and I started seriously thinking about writing for big bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackrel\u2019s military family moved to San Diego when he was in middle school, where he attended Horace Mann. He spent his 11th- and part of his 12th-grade years at Crawford, in the El Cerrito neighborhood. The family then moved to Las Vegas, where he completed high school and college.<\/p>\n

He and the Count Basie Orchestra, which typically features between 16 and 18 musicians, will perform here at downtown\u2019s all-ages Anthology Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Count Basie, the legendary bandleader and pianist, played a key role in the popularity of swing after starting his orchestra in 1935. Except for a brief hiatus in the 1950s, the group has thrived until, and beyond, his passing in 1984. Yet, for a band as steeped in tradition as the Count Basie Orchestra, the music never gets old.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you\u2019re playing a very old piece, you are playing it for people who may be hearing it for the first time. Tapping into that connection is a great feeling and creates a good energy,\u201d said Mackrel, who also conducts The WDR Big Band in Koln, Germany, and Finland\u2019s UMO Jazz Orchestra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I enjoy most about working with the Count Basie Orchestra is that we\u2019re in a post-big-band age. In most of the established big bands, the leaders have been gone for a generation. Our band has a good mix of older musicians and younger musicians. They range in age from early 20s to late 70s. It creates a great environment \u2014 a good exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasie really liked younger players. He believed there was always something to learn. Basie kept the standard high; he had discriminating taste and kept the arrangements top-notch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackrel turned 50 in April \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m newly old,\u201d he said with a chuckle. In 1983, at age 20, he became the Count Basie Orchestra\u2019s drummer and stayed for four years. He returned to lead the group in 2010.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that Mackrel was asked to lead the Count Basie Orchestra. He has been featured on nearly 100 recordings by other artists, as drummer, leader or arranger. His arrangements were on two Grammy-winning albums by pianist McCoy Tyner. Mackrel readily admits that a drummer who composes and arranges music for a big band is a rarity.<\/p>\n

Via utsandiego.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-Crawford High student Dennis Mackrel honored to keep Count Basie\u2019s music alive By Beth Wood| Special to the U-T\u00a0utsandiego.com Dennis Mackrel\u00a0spent barely a year or so attendingCrawford High School\u00a0in San Diego, but it was there that the leader of the internationally acclaimed\u00a0Count Basie Orchestra\u00a0experienced a musical epiphany \u2014 one that spurred him on to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,863],"tags":[1492,603,1493,37,1491,1449],"class_list":["post-5069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-music","category-upcoming-shows","tag-beth-wood","tag-count-basie-orchestra","tag-dennis-mackrel","tag-special-event","tag-union","tag-utsandiego-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5072,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions\/5072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}