Tall and charismatic, Tommy Igoe walked out to applause and cheers as his band, The Birdland All-Stars, prepared to play to audiences Saturday night at Stewart Theatre in Talley Student Union. The concert was presented by NC State LIVE and Arts NC State, attracting audiences from in and around Raleigh.
“We’re going to have a hell of a good time,” Igoe said.
Igoe smiled as he welcomed the crowd. Being an outsider, he pronounced Raleigh as “rally” before being quickly corrected by the audience, but he would be sure to win their trust with his music.
The band prepared simultaneously to begin, being prompted to action after an introduction of Igoe hitting just the hi-hat of his drums, steadily and rhythmically. A band of 10 members, The Birdland All-Stars is composed of Tommy Igoe, the bandleader and drummer, Leo Traversa on bass, Ted Baker on the keyboard, Jeanne Geiger on the trombone, Steffen Kuehn and Mike Olmos on the trumpet, Tony Lustig on baritone sax, Tony Peebles on the tenor sax, Christian Pepin on percussion and Drew Zingg on guitar. Hailing from the ends of the east and west coasts with inspirations from around the world, the members all brought different styles, sounds and cultures to the band.
Pepin, the percussionist, hails from Puerto Rico and brought those sounds to the table as he took the crowd’s attention with his bongo solos. Traversa, the bassist, has played with Brazilian groups for decades in New York City and Brazil, being well-versed in the art of Bossa Nova, the lush genre made up of a fusion of samba and jazz. After the first song, Igoe let out a sigh of relief before jokingly wishing the audience a good night.
“Thank you ladies and gentlemen, goodnight,” Igoe said. “We’re going to play the music of life, and of love, and of awesomeness.”
Igoe, who is based out of San Francisco, is a famed world-class jazz percussionist. Having been long recognized for his drumming for over two decades, he boasts of having played on three Grammy award-winning recordings and also having been the principal drummer and conductor of Disney’s Broadway production of “The Lion King.” He has spent the last nine years playing in his main band, The Birdland Big Band, members of which have had ongoing residencies at Birdland, an iconic jazz institution in New York City.
Of course, Igoe’s life that has been dedicated to jazz is no miracle, as he is the son of Sonny Igoe, a jazz drummer who played with the likes of legends in the birth of American jazz, such as Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and even Tony Bennett.
The band burned with ease through their songs with Igoe stationed right up front with the rhythm section and the brass section elevated slightly behind him. Playing with no intermission, Igoe would make jokes between songs and interact with his crowd.
Every song featured a solo from one or two of the band members, and as expected, an explosive and awe-inducing drum solo from Igoe, for which the rest of the band would quiet down for with an almost religious reverence.
The Birdland All-Stars played their trademark jazz that invoked the spirits of their predecessors but with a twist, since it featured modern characteristics, faster drumming accompanied by other percussion, two saxophonists as well as the electric guitar.
The band also performed Brazilian and Venezuelan pieces, which featured strong use of the piano and bongos, being lively and tropical like their places of origin, the Brazilian song containing elements of samba and the Venezuelan song brandished with the influence of salsa, which also featured a powerful trombone solo from Jeanne Geiger, who stepped out in front of the band to play this solo that was as booming as it was beautiful.
Igoe then spoke about his father and the small, mafia-owned clubs that he would play on the famed 52nd street of New York City, known for the best jazz in the city from the 30s to the 50s. This was a prompt for half of the band to leave their instruments so that it could turn into an acoustic five piece and Igoe could play a sole snare drum with brush sticks to play “Whoopin’ Blues,” a song in the style of Dixieland jazz from New Orleans.
This piece allowed for the more well-rounded and jazz veteran audience members to be brought back to the time of the music, offering music with a swing that audiences would dance to profusely in the 30s and 40s, such as Benny Goodman’s. This intimate moment offered the audience a chance to see the extent of Igoe’s drumming skills, as he made one snare drum sound like a whole ensemble, even still playing multiple solos on it.
The band ended the performance with a piece from Chick Corea, bowing before an audience that was left wanting more.
Jodi Awtrey, a second-year studying biology and a jazz fan, expressed her satisfaction with the concert.
“My socks were blown off,” Awtrey said. “The drummer is so talented and he had such an amazing technique. He was very passionate about it, and you could see how passionate he was.”
As a friendly character, Igoe invited the audience to purchase merchandise and come say hello to him after the concert along with the rest of the band members. He was able to be reached for comment outside of Stewart Theatre.
“Incredible audience, incredible venue, the energy that we got back was the same that we gave them so it was reciprocal, and they just kept pushing us to higher and higher heights,” Igoe said. “These are one of our favorite venues, with a low stage and high seats. We’ll come back anytime they want us to.”
Tony Peebles of The Birdland All-Stars plays the soprano saxophone in Stewart Theatre on Saturday. The Birdland All-Stars, a jazz group hailing from New York, played compositions in varying time signatures during their performance at NC State.
