Earshot | Great American songs, revived

Now that jazz is the subject of high art and the object of serious, scholarly pursuit, it sometimes seems as if in order to be good, the music ought to be a little uncomfortable to listen to, difficult to grasp, its intent obscured.

And then there is the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, or the SRJO, there to remind us that jazz — before it rightfully earned a place in Lincoln Center, before one could grow up to be a professor of jazz — was an early form of popular music.

That point was hammered home Saturday night at the Nordstrom Recital Hall in the big band's Great American Songbook IV concert, one of a series of performances featuring thoughtfully interpreted arrangements of songs by America's greatest popular composers. The popular SRJO concert came in the final weekend of the 17-day Earshot Jazz Festival, which ended Sunday.

Saturday night's performance featured local vocalists James Caddell, Bernie Jacobs and Greta Matassa fronting the all-star band and singing songs by George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, among others. All but three of the songs were written in the 1930s and 1940s. It was probably not a coincidence that so many heads in the near-capacity audience of more than 500 had long ago gone gray, and that more than a few rolling walkers were parked in the aisle.

Co-directed by drummer Clarence Acox and alto saxophonist Michael Brockman, the band opened the first set with a version of "Body and Soul," that featured Bill Ramsey on baritone sax. Among the members of the SRJO are several college professors (Brockman, trombonist David Marriott Jr., pianist Randy Halberstadt, bassist Phil Sparks) and several high-school band directors (Acox, trombonists Bill Anthony, David Bentley and Scott Brown).

Individually, the members are all accomplished soloists who struck a remarkable balance as a group, demonstrating both touch and power. During the bridge of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," the rhythm section dropped out, leaving the trombone section to play the bass line.

Singer Caddell accompanied the band for the last three songs in a row: "Nearness of You," "Don't Worry About Me" (in a Brockman arrangement) and "Every Day I Have the Blues." The ballads suited Caddell's penetrating baritone voice.

Jacobs joined the group in the second set, singing "Just Squeeze Me," "Sunday" (a departure from the program) and "Love You Madly." If Caddell had gravity, Jacobs had range and smoothness.

Matassa was the jazziest, if you will, of the three, improvising more and taking more liberty with the phrasing. She also sang perhaps the jazziest song — Ellington's arrangement of "Caravan."