Walter Blanding is known as jazz's ambassador to Israel.
"My ex-wife is Israeli, and she was homesick," he said. "So, I decided to move there with her and just give it a chance - good or bad. If things were so horrible, I could just come back home. It was a great experience. And because of that experience, I was able to grow in a way that I wouldn't have been able to grow had I stayed here in the United States."
Blanding, who plays the saxophone and clarinet, will perform tonight at Kiva Auditorium with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by trumpet player Wynton Marsalis.
When Blanding was in Israel, he taught music at four high schools and arranged performances with artists such as Louis Hayes and Eric Reed.
"I was able to bring a different artist from the United States every month," he said. "We'd do a little tour and let the people know a little bit about American music, especially jazz. It was very successful. The first year was very difficult because I didn't know anybody, but slowly things started to develop to the point where we had influenced a lot of people."
Blanding said Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was formed by the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the surviving members of The Duke Ellington Orchestra.
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"I think he (Marsalis) did a great job of picking the guys in the band, because all of us can really play," Blanding said. "There's 15 of us, and I love the other guys. We're like a family. Almost everybody has their own album out. Everybody's a group leader, and he did a good job of picking people who get along together well. It's fun every night."
The orchestra will perform music by Duke Ellington. Blanding said Ellington's music is the backbone of jazz.
"That's like saying, 'How important is Bach to European classical music?'" he said. "He's one of the founding fathers of that tradition, and Duke Ellington is definitely one of the founding fathers of American music."
Blanding said big bands were more common before World War II.
"When the war came about, it put a financial strain on the country, and a lot of those big bands were unable to support their members - which is why a lot of groups ended up being smaller groups of five or six people, instead of a big orchestra of 15 or more people," he said. "We are fortunate because the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is one of the few ensembles that has managed somehow to continue, to tour and perform. There are a few other orchestras out there, but quite frankly speaking, it's just hard financially to manage a large group."
Blanding said big bands are America's classical music.
"You go to an opera or you go to see a philharmonic orchestra play, and it's such a beautiful thing," he said. "But that's coming from a European perspective, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's beautiful. But when you talk about the American tradition, what do we have in terms of an orchestra? From an orchestra standpoint, it's jazz. That's American music."
The orchestra will finish its tour Tuesday. For Blanding, living out of a suitcase has never been so rewarding.
"It's not easy," he said. "The reason that I'm telling you this is because the reward is worth it. We love what we do. This is my life, and it's a pleasure to do this and for people to share in this music."
