Bill Russo, in memoriam

I'm not going to do him nearly as much justice as Trib's Howard Reich, who might actually go a bit too far in the other direction in his piece (registration required), but 74-year old composer William Russo passed away on Saturday. Russo was an odd bird, but held his place among the Chicago jazz scene.

It was a place that most people respected, yet noone else really wanted to share, really. A staunch traditionalist (ostensibly one of the reasons Reich liked him so much), Russo was a champion of classic big band leaders like Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington, eschewing more modern jazz elements like be-bop or (shudder) electric instruments. That said, he had his charm, even if you were partial to elements of jazz that he didn't particularly care for. Of course, younger musicians passing through his sphere of influence at Columbia College might not agree with me. I took a jazz ensemble class from him several years ago, and what stuck out to me was how younger players listening to Bird and Dizzy and Coltrane who wanted to let loose kept coming into conflict with him. It was interesting because I knew which side I would have come down on when I was in my late teens or early twenties. Nowadays, I like it when someone imposes a strict set of rules, as Russo would often do through the use of "game" pieces, and forces me to create within that structure. Ten or twelve years ago, maybe not so much.

Put short, the guy was a Chicago jazz institution, both in his teaching at Columbia and his leading of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. A lot of local musicians, while not necessarily in his debt, have been touched by his world, and he'll certainly be missed.