BIG BAND: FOR THE LOVE OF THE MUSIC

Feb. 18, 2005   

The dinosaurs became extinct because a changing global environment left them starved for food (among other reasons). Rick Stepton knows how Tyrannosaurus Rex must have felt.

Rick's in his 60s now, but he spent much of his adult life playing trombone in some of the world's best-known and most respected big bands: Woody Herman's, Buddy Rich's, Maynard Ferguson's. As for the dinosaurs, so for the big bands: the food chain has shrunk, and the oversized, once-powerful animals are starving toward extinction. There's not a club in America that can afford to pay 17 people a living wage, and the few concert hall spaces available concentrate on the "ghost bands" that recreate the sounds of big band's past. Truly contemporary big band music hardly exists any more, for live performances or even recordings.

But in today's jazz "ice age" there's Cecil's Big Band, led by Joe Elefante. Most Monday nights the 17 band members play at a small jazz club in suburban West Orange, N.J., and usually outnumber their audience. Their biggest pay night yet? "We made $14 once," says trombonist Dennis Argul.

Fame and fortune are certainly irrelevant to this endeavor: it's all about the music. For Cecil Brooks III, a well-respected jazz drummer, record producer, and owner of the club, it's a chance to keep a sound alive (he loses money every Monday), and an opportunity to sit in the drum chair occasionally. For bandleader/pianist/vocalist Joe Elefante, it's a start, and once you hear him and his arrangements and his orchestra you will be sure he's got lots more great music ahead of him. For the rest of the band, Mondays bring a unique opportunity to sit surrounded by 16 other guys roaring away in high-decibel bliss.

Some of the musicians, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams, for one; trumpeter Freddie Hendrix for another, recognition, recordings and a stable career in jazz seem just around the corner. Saxophonists Craig Yaremko and Jim Saltzman seem just a quarter-step away. Others like Dennis Argul, who teaches in Newark's Music and Arts High School, or Scott Reeves, on the faculty at the City University of New York, already have careers and this gig is just the garnish on their plates. For Rick Stepton, "playing with these kids" (he's old enough to be most of his bandmates' father) "is a privilege," to be let into the youth movement, and a pleasure, once again to be in the matchless maelstrom of more than a dozen folks on musical fire.

You'll meet all these people tonight on "Nightline," and more importantly, you'll hear them play.

Are they any good? Let's put it this way: Nat Hentoff, perhaps America's premier jazz critic, was introduced to the band the night we videotaped them at Cecil's. His response: "That's the most fun I've had in 5 years!"

We hope you will feel the same way.

Dave Marash & the "Nightline" Staff
Correspondent
ABC News New York Bureau