My father is one of those people who gets caught up in excitement with embarrassing ease.

He’s reliably the loudest and most animated applause-giver in any audience (someone taught him to whistle through his fingers years ago, which turned out to be a lot like giving a five-year-old a Civil War cannon), and I can remember seeing “Jurassic Park” with him when I was seven.

He was the only person who shouted when the raptor, that clever girl, jumped out of the trees and ambushed Muldoon by the power shed.

Frighteningly, Tuesday night’s Jazz Lab Band concert in Boutell Concert Hall invoked a similar sensation in me.

I have to hope the band’s performance – its first of the Spring 2008 season – was harder than they made it look, because they commanded my toe-tapping and pen-slapping what seemed like no effort at all. But unlike my father in the crowded movie theater, I wasn’t the only one in the audience who couldn’t contain his enthusiasm.

The band was tight, and if some of the soloists were a little rough around the edges, their fellow musicians more than made up for it with their cohesiveness.
Promising Peruvian saxophonist Katherina Illescas played the feature for Jimmy Rowles’s “The Peacocks” earnestly, beefing an initial note but cleaning up the act and finishing strong.

Band Director Rodrigo Villanueva shook up the program, rearranging it seemingly on-the-fly and moving Horace Silver’s “Nutville” from fourth place to the finale. The song showcased the best solos of the night: fourth trumpet Ryan Nyther delighted the audience, nailing a blistering solo.

And when the anxious bass line shuffled into a rabid drum outro by Dan Pratt, I couldn’t resist shouting out loud over the applause.

Maybe I can get someone to teach me how to whistle through my fingers.

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