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Music Reviews Apr 8, 1999 - The Ladies of Diva Please but Miss Thrills By Jack Neal And all that jazz... It's tough being a woman in what used to be an almost exclusively man's world. ø0a ø0aø0a ø0a ø0a Diva, the all-woman "No Man's Band," played the Pioneer Center Wednesday night. If there's anything wrong with this marvelous 15-piece big-band band it's that the ladies are trying too hard to out-do their male counterparts in emulating the sometimes overused edge-and-growl sounds of jazz. ø0aFifty years ago instrumental musicians talked about the differences between the male sound and the female sound. No one talks much about such things anymore, partly at least because such talk didn't make much sense then, but mostly because it makes even less sense now. World War II turned the tide for women's mainstream involvement in life from a trickle to a deluge that changed, if not all that, at least much of that. Women went to work and women began making their mark on America's orchestras. ø0aThe extensive and well-honed talents of such bands as Diva (Does anyone remember the Hormel All Girl Orchestra?) are an outgrowth of vast changes in attitudes. I love Diva, but somewhere swirling around in the dark resources of memory were the gorgeous sax sounds of concert-saxophonist Sigurd Rascher as opposed to the sometimes too-rough sounds of jazz artists looking for down-and-dirty expressiveness and finding little more than coarse is as coarse does. ø0aNot that everything needs to be "pretty." It's just that it doesn't have to be ugly either, unless gutteral, earthy and ugly are the point - and those are worthwhile points to make. ø0aThe point I'm trying to make is that too often some of Diva's soloists play with a harsher sound than necessary; a fabulous technique, but an uncomfortably edgy sound. With the exception of a beautifully shaped "Prelude to a Kiss," too-edgy was most often true of lead alto saxophonist Karoline Strassmayer. Strassmayer's terrific but too tough edged. It was also true of lead trumpeter Liesl Whitaker. Playing a gorgeously arranged "Star Dust," Whittaker put an edge on this classic tune that made it more teeth grinding than lyric. ø0aWithout question the inventiveness of Diva, the tightness of its rhythmic integrity, its sure-footed pitch, its marvelous arrangements (an especially brilliant "Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead"), its joy of performance and its abundance of gifts make it a band of unquestioned achievement. When Diva plays quietly and dramatically as it does in its tribute to Ella Ftizgerald - a haunting "How High the Moon" - its sound is fabulous. ø0aø0a ø0a The classy string bass playing of Noriko Ueda is consistently true and absolutely always on the mark; the unaffected piano work of Lorraine Desmarais is remarkably clean and impeccable; the baritone sax soloing of Lisa Parrott is amazingly liquid; and the extraordinarily musical drumming of Diva's leader and driving force, Sherrie Maricle, is on a lofty level of virtuosity and artistry only rarely experienced. ø0aThat, then, is the band's other rub: Its virtuosity and drive is kept at such a sizzling pace, someone must have forgotten that slow is as exciting as fast and quiet as exciting as loud. Range and variety would have vastly enhanced the pleasures of Wednesday's concert. ø0aDiva was the last presentation of the season by Washoe County Community Concerts. As Nevada's oldest performing arts organization, its a plus for the organziation that it's gliding so gracefully into a new era. ø0aThe new millennium is at hand. A 1996 Washington Times article about the ladies of Diva penned by T.L. Polnick gave a particularly insightful glimpse backward and forward: "Being a female jazz instrumentalist has, at times, been like playing in the old Negro leagues, according to percussionist Sherrie Maricle. 'They'd tell them, "You guys are great but you still can't play in the majors." But things change. Today, Diva is dedicated to carrying the legacy of swing into the next century." ø0aDiva has not only made it into the majors, it - along with Community Concerts - has deftly and firmly opened the door on a new century of excitement in the concert hall for all kinds of music.
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