Danny Jonokuchi Big Band
‘Voices’
Outside In Music Records

On first observation, the new album by the Danny Jonokuchi Big Band is a grandiose statement of artistic generosity. Think about it: A big band album is the most expensive proposition imaginable for an independent jazz artist. Danny Jonokuchi is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader; for him to marshal the resources together to record 60 minutes’ worth of music by a 17-piece jazz orchestra is an almost Herculean undertaking. Ditto his own labor of writing 11 orchestrations for that ensemble. 

For most individuals, the more immediate and selfish decision would be to keep all that expensive glory for oneself: to do an album of original works, all of which would primarily showcase the leader himself, as composer as well as instrumentalist. Mr. Jonokuchi has done precisely the opposite: He’s devoted all of that energy and labor toward showcasing 11 first-rate singers in outstanding new arrangements of classic songs from the traditional Great American Songbook.

All the singers here qualify as emerging talents, mostly under 30, and they’ve all been spotted at such venues as Birdland, Dizzy’s, and those twin sisters of Sheridan Square, Mezzrow and Smalls. Most of them have made at least some kind of recording, usually self-produced, but few have received the luxurious showcase of a big band. 

Some of the glory does eventually reflect back on the leader-producer himself; the end result is that we come away from the new album, appropriately titled “Voices,” realizing that Mr. Jonokuchi is a superb orchestrator, one who truly knows how to get the most out of both a superior voice and a classic tune.

Mr. Jonokuchi himself doesn’t play, but the first instrumental solo we hear, as Alexa Barchini kicks off the album with “The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else),” is a trumpet solo by James Zollar, a welcome presence on thousands of New York big band dates over the last 30 years. It’s followed by a baritone sax chorus by Andrew Gutauskas. Nearly all of the tracks are wildly uptempo and very hard-swinging; there’s only one song that qualifies as a true ballad, and perhaps not coincidentally that’s also the only number performed by a male vocalist, Charles Turner on Oscar Levant’s “Blame It on My Youth,” which also features Jeb Patton on piano. 

There’s also one Brazilian song, Sérgio Mendez’s “So Many Stars,” delivered in an easy bossa beat by Sirintip, a singer of combined Thai and Swedish origins, with a lush trombone solo by Robert Edwards. The Mexican standard “What a Difference a Day Made,” featuring Alita Moses, proceeds in a very subtle samba beat, heavy on the flutes and a return appearance by Mr. Gutauskas. Mel Torme’s “Born to Be Blue,” sung by Lucy Yeghiazaryan, who has her own solo show this week at Birdland, is herewith recast as a medium-tempo jazz waltz with a juicy piano solo by Jeb Patton — the kind of thing that Mel would have loved. 

It’s an album in which every cut is prime, where all the singers have their own signature sound and personality, and the arrangements do as well.  Brianna Thomas’s “Summertime” is highly Gospelized and larger than life, increasingly so as the track progresses, with solos by saxophonist Andrew Gould and muted trumpeter Nick Marchione. 

Conversely, Martina Da Sylva displays her subtle, understated sound on “All of Nothing at All,” set off with a catchy counter-riff. As a persistent fan of both singers, I feel like I’ve heard them in virtually every context, except this one. Hannah Gill, also represented by a new album of her own, brings it all to a satisfying conclusion with Duke Ellington’s “I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So.”

Here’s hoping the “Voices” idea catches on and that Mr. Jonokuchi is moved to make additional volumes: I’d love to hear what he could do with Veronica Swift, Nicolas King, Anais Reno, Samara Joy, Sweet Megg, Tatiana Eva-Marie, Joie Bianco, and a few others. Every singer shines here, and yet the ultimate gift he’s giving isn’t to them, as much as it may do for their careers, but to us. After hearing this album, we’re all lucky so-and-sos.