IRA B. LISS BIG BAND SOUND MACHINE: Unexpected Guests

A San Diego mainstay for more than 45 years, Ira B. Liss and his Big Band Sound Machine’s seventh album is definitely their most ambitious, unquestionably their most intriguing, and just may be the most rewarding outing yet.

Co-helmed by arranger and composer Dan Radlauer, Unexpected Guests features a different lead soloist on each track. Now, lots of bands will bring in guest artists to spice things up, but few go as far as Liss and Radlauer do here in bringing in folks NOT from big band swing backgrounds. Rather, the guests range from symphonic (cello, bassoon) to bluegrass (mandolin), Hawaiian (three-string uke) to West African reggae, and a tap-dancing rapper (or is it a rapping tap-dancer?).

But by far the biggest name on their new record is country superstar Vince Gill, who brought his own original composition, “I’m Counting on You.” Radlauer’s arrangement of Gill’s song creates the kind of plush pile background that Billy May specialized in providing for Frank Sinatra. No strings here, just a top-flight 17-piece big band. And the way Radlauer plays the reeds against the brass, sometimes in call and response and others in contrast, recalls classic Basie charts by Neal Hefti and Sammy Nestico.

Anyone who heard Gill’s duet with Gladys Knight of “Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing” from Don Was’ 1993 summit album Rhythm Country & Blues won’t be entirely surprised by his ability to completely immerse himself in a supper club vibe here. With Knight, he was fully in a vintage Motown soul vein, stepping into Marvin Gaye’s shoes with utter confidence and charm.

Here, with no shadows to step out of as it is the debut recording of “I’m Counting on You,” Gill delivers a relaxed, jazzy vocal reading. It reminds a bit of hearing ’50s rock idol James Darren’s late-in-career pivot to nightclub standards thanks to a recurring role on the Star Trek spinoff Deep Space Nine. If this is the most unexpected turn on an album promising just that, Gill is wholly in the pocket—there is none of the fish-out-of-water weirdness that permeates so many jazz standards crossover attempts by rock and pop singers. If Gill wasn’t an established country star, listeners hearing him for the first time here would have no idea he didn’t earn his keep singing (and now contributing to) the Great American Songbook. He caresses (his) lyrics, somehow spinning his singing into a warm conversation, turning the song into a story the way the best crooners do.

As stellar and surprising as Gill’s track is, it’s just one of 11 songs on this album, all of which delight in their own way.

Maybe the most intriguing cut is “Tapped Out,” featuring the tap dancing and rapping of Leo Manzari (lead singer of neo-funk hip-hop outfit AllBe). The track isn’t swing so much as post-World War II concert big band jazz (think Stan Kenton or Woody Herman), but Manzari’s rhythm on tap still provides a nice throwback vibe to when tap dancing was part of our popular culture. When Manzari breaks into a rap, though, it brings the sound fully into the present, yet with a smart, jazz background framing his vocals.

Rocky Dawuni is a reggae musician from Ghana in West Africa, and here he reprises his own song “Extraordinary Woman” from his 2010 album, Hymns for the Rebel Soul. Radlauer creates a remarkably seamless synthesis of reggae and swing, Latin and jazz—not too far from what Rubén Blades did with Roberto Delgado and his big band in 2021 on their album Salswing.

Hawai’ian ukulele player Daniel Ho sits in on a cover of his song “Pineapple Mango,” which Radnaeur frames in a fairly spare arrangement so as not to drown out Ho’s playing. There are hints of Polynesian sounds in there, although it’s more pop than overtly Hawai’ian.

While Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson made the vibraphone sound perfectly at home in a jazz setting, the similar marimba is unfairly underrecorded. Wade Culbreath’s lead on marimba on Radlauer’s “Knock on Wood” has a similar supper-club feel to that fans of vibes will find comforting, but with more of a tropical feel due to the wooden bars on a marimba (compared to the aluminum bars on the vibes).

Other tracks feature violinist Nora Germain, French horn player Chris Castellanos, bassoonist Paul Hanson, mandolin player Eva Scow, recorder player Tali Rubinstein, and cellist Tina Guo. Each has its own stylistic influences and inferences, yet at the same time it’s clearly, obviously the Big Band Sound Machine.

Also worth pointing out is that many, perhaps most, of the tracks here have an accompanying video on Liss’ YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@IraBLiss-xp1le) showing the process of recording that song. All provide additional insight and background into the tracks and the guest artists—most of whom are playing with a big band swing combo for the first time. The video featuring Manzari, in particular, brings new light to his tap routine when you can watch it as well as it hear it on the recording (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmZvLsOZI7c).