The Big Bari Band is big fun ! Where else do you get two bari saxes in one band?
For the irrepressibly creative Chicago saxophonist Juli Wood, the only thing better than one big, rumbling baritone saxophone is, well, two of them.
The front line features Wood and Chicago saxophonist Rajiv Halim on the two low horns. If you’ve ever heard either one of these musicians, you know that the two together playing baritone suggests considerable sound and energy.
“I’ve always been a fan of Rajiv Halim’s playing on alto and tenor — he’s fantastic,” says Wood. “He’s just so soulful and very studied, though. He’s got so much harmonic knowledge, and his technique on saxophone is great.
“Then I heard he bought a bari.”
That’s all Wood needed to hear to begin conceiving the new band. For periodically she has picked up her baritone and has found audiences apparently eager to hear more.“Whenever I played at Room 43, there were always people who said: When are you going to bring that bari out?” says Wood, speculating they’re familiar with the “Movin’ and Groovin’” quintet recording she made in the 1990s with organist Mel Rhyne. That album, and a later one,”54321 Juli Wood” featured Wood playing baritone on some tracks, and lately she’d come to realize it was time for her to return seriously to the instrument.“The ballads are really mournful and beautiful,” she says.
“The bari can be kind of airy and eerie-sounding if you play it softly, so we really use the (hushed) dynamics for the ballads. The baritone actually has a lot of coloring to it. It certainly can get loud and raucous. Some of these tunes we’re playing really fast, and we’ve really got to move it, as with ” The Cooker ” a George Benson tune. Double baritone repertoire is more rarefied, though Wood said she has drawn inspiration from Sun Ra’s 1950s “Sound of Joy” album, which featured Charles Davis and Pat Patrick on baritones.
The work of prolific baritone player Ronnie Cuber also has been important to her.As for the Big Bari Band repertoire, Wood says she has arranged ballads such as Horace Silver’s “Peace” and McCoy Tyner’s “Search for Peace,” which “sound really beautiful with the two baris.” Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica,” Silver’s “Enchantment” and the title cut of guitarist Grant Green’s “Matador” also have proved fruitful, says Wood, the latter because “it’s got a great bass jumping line that sounds really good with the bari picking that off.” – Howard Reich Chicago Tribune
The Big Bari Band has been featured twice at the Chicago Jazz Fest and played at Andy’s Jazz Club and the Jazz Showcase.
TICKETS
General Admission $25
VIP $40
Student Tickets $20
CASH ONLY
Available at the door ONLY with valid student ID
