Review: Frank Wess: Age Is Nothing But a Number

The audience watching 86 year old Frank Wess moving to the mic at the outset of Saturday's concert at the Dayton Art Institute had good reason to wonder what kind of energy to expect. But from the instant his quintet launched into Clifford Brown's Sandu there was no doubt Wess was more than capable of delivering the goods. Full bodied and brimming with fire, Wess set a match to soulful originals such as You Made A Good Move and Sara's Song while gently sculpting Johnny Mandel's A Time For Love with the kind of time-tested tenderness only a musician of his deep experience can muster.

Without a piano, the band's high energy locomotion was provided by guitarist Ilya Lushtak and drummer Winard Harper as bass virtuoso Rufus Reid provided a comfortable cushion for the band to ride on. Trumpeter Terell Stafford continued to reveal himself as perhaps the most complete trumpeter in jazz. His ravishing second set feature on The Nearness of You was one of the evening's true highlights. And when Stafford and the leader dusted off his Count Basie flute showcase The Midgets, the older master and his younger counterpart were in perfect, high-speed, lockstep. When the crowd demanded an encore, the band came back out and revved up Kenny Dorham's hard-bop classic Lotus Blossom, full on.

What does it mean when history comes alive like it did Saturday with Frank Wess? That jazz can be inspirational, in more ways than one.

Here's Frank Wess and Joe Newman from 1959, performing The Midgets in the Count Basie Orchestra.