Boss Brass

There will probably never be a Big Band of the caliber of the Boss Brass ever again in Canada. The pool of musicians and performance opportunites has been steadily dwindling. Steady employment (studio work) for fine musicians is virtually non-existent.

The era for this size professional ensemble unfortunately seems to have seen it's day. Although there are still pockets of great players around, opportunities to perform at this level has become a challenge.

There isn't enough work anymore to sustain fine players who are trying to make a decent living. I understand that even the schools (High Schools) have down graded the importance of music in their agendas. This only means that some where down the line, the pool of musicians will be even smaller.

The Boss Brass was an idea conceived by composer and trombone player (valve trombone) Rob McConnell.  Originally the band was all Brass.  It was a musically innovative idea but politically speaking it had it's challenges. (make that challengers).

One night, while performing at the Savarin Restaurant in Toronto, some noted sax players led by Moe Koffman came (with placards) and objected to their exclusion. I guess it was Moe that said, "Hey Rob. Where's the saxes?" 

Rob McConnell saw the writing on the wall and eventually went the route of conventional instrumentation for his Big Band. (meaning he added a sax section) 

As it turned out Big Bands were enjoying a renewed interest in the Colleges and Universities across North America and elsewhere it seems. Rob never looked back. Many music awards later and numerous albums his exquiste "musical juggernaut" was known and admired the world over.

His band was a collection of "studio" super-stars.   He even admitted to being surprised that no matter how difficult he wrote the charts, his musicians were always able to play them.

One time he called Jerry Toth (alto sax) and Moe Koffman (alto sax) to arrive at the next rehearsal a bit earlier to look over a tricky soli section on a tune called "Jive at Five".  

Jerry and Moe went over into the corner and started to hash over what looked like a mess of black notes on this very demanding part. One of them turned to the other (after they had more or less gotten through it) "If you and I are having a difficult time with this part what are others going to do."  These were the two best alto players in the world and it was a logical conclusion.

I met Rob one day and we chatted about his many successes. I told him that I wanted to have Ben Wicks (a famous Toronto cartoonist) do a bit on him. (With Rob's permission of course.)  It would be in the style of "the bad news" and then "the good news."

First page would be a band leader announcing to his musicians, "I've got bad news.  We have a request for the Bird Dance." (They would all appear down cast.) Second page - "The good news is, it's Rob McConnell's arrangement. (Now they're all smiles).   Rob said," Go with it." He liked the idea.

Soon after Ben Wicks passed away and I never pursued the idea any further. Maybe someday...

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