T.O.

Rob McConnell (McKonk Music-CAPAC) Soloists: ROB McCONNELL, RICK WILKINS From the album "Rob McConnell and The Boss Brass Live in digital" Recorded at: THE EL MOCAMBO, Toronto Canada Dec. 1-3, 1980 From the album liner notes: Opening the album is a knock out. T.O. is a theme written for Ted O'Reilly's jazz show on radio CJRT. O'Reilly is a 23 year veteran jazz broadcaster on the Toronto outlet and T.O. has different stylistic things indicative of his spectrum of jazz programming--Henry Red Allen, Jelly Roll Morton, Miff Mole and Duke Ellington to Freddie Hubbard and Anthony Braxton. The custom made theme is ideal--20 seconds of loud roaring stuff to get underway followed by 40 seconds which goes down to the soft tutti (as an under announcement on the air)--then it roars again and goes to half time at the end for the closing. There's a Dixieland section, and Ed Bickert's wonderful guitar and McConnell's saucy, swinging valve trombone inject a small group sound by playing alone for 64 bars. "Then a quasi-rock section where Rick plays tenor for awhile and goes back to swing," relates McConnell, "then there's a far-out section (an open section), and every night it's played differently and sometimes it's so plain. And the brass section is written far-out: some start at the top, others at the bottom and they all meet in the center in a big cluster--then back to the bridge of the tune as the drums take it away, gets us back to home base and then it goes to half time for ending." As a tag he adds, "there's no substitute for getting it done properly even though I think that none of this is really too complicated."