If a week is a long time in politics, three are just a blink in the life of a big band. But when it's packed with the cream of Europe's young jazz musicians who bring so much skill and commitment to it, it's a different story.
The current edition of the EJYO - it undergoes a complete change of personnel, music director and repertoire each year - sounded like a group playing together for months. Crisp, precise and powerful ensemble work, excellent intonation and a good balance between sections told their own story. Underlying it, too, was an infectious joie de vivre - a tribute to themselves and their conductor, Benjamin Herman.
Several soloists, including Spain's Raynald Colon and Austria's Daniel Nosig among the trumpets, Finland's Petri Puolitaival and Ireland's Derek O'Connor among the reeds, and Israel's Idan Wallish and Denmark's Mia Birch Engs ager in the trombone section, particularly impressed, with Colon and Wallish outstanding. A six-piece rhythm section gave this aspect of the EJYO's work a very contemporary feel and they handled even the most demanding scores with aplomb. The closest they came to being even slightly uncomfortable was on Florian Ross's fine Now and Then and Now Again, identified by Herman as closer in spirit to the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis era of the 60s and 70s than today's big band language.
The repertoire, however, was weighted more towards a funky, rocking sound, sections riffing away, often over repetitive harmonies, building excitement around the soloists. Apart from some nice writing on Herman's own Cosmic Eyes, only two pieces seemed really to address the orchestra's potential for colour to any great degree. One was Ross's composition and arrangement, a lovely piece of musical architecture with some gorgeous brass and reed writing. The other was Ronan Guilfoyle's more daring Zephyr, which contained some of the most adventurous writing of the evening, making especially good use of the spread of sound offered by the doubling of the reed players. A concert to savour and a credit to all concerned.