Tag Archives: big band

Some excellent big band recordings have come out recently, proving this storied and lively jazz subgenre continues to sizzle all these decades after the heydays of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller.

DIVA looks to the extraordinary composers and arrangers within the band for grist to make memorable instrumentals.

Neu integrates Latin, cabaret, and swing into the ensemble.

The band fuses decades of melodic jazz into a single recording, regaling audiences with their multi-faceted brew.

With a definite split in personality over the nine tracks that compose the album – something to be expected perhaps when we’re talking about an album that dances from big band jazz to Turkish folk melodies to something that’s almost reggae – 'Resolution' is definitely one of the more interesting listens I’ve happened upon in months.

After years of writing for Dave Liebman’s Big Band, the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Bill Mobley’s Smoke Big Band, and the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra, brassman/composer Scott Reeves launched his own 16-piece jazz orchestra in 2008. Their 2016 debut release, Portraits and Places, features seven Reeves originals, along with his arrangement of Jobim’s, “Waters of March.” He has forged an original compositional style which All About Jazz described as “varied and substantial, ranging from hard bop and Latin oriented themes...to French impressionist influences. His arrangements are restless, full of color, and provide ample solo space...amidst variable underpinnings.”

Iconic Ellington reinvigorated live in Germany.

'Kaleidoscope Eyes' is the Beatles’ music like you haven’t heard before.

Count Basie and Duke Ellington, both phenomenal pianists, composers and bandleaders were fierce competitors. But not at the recording studio or concert hall.

Great soloists, tight ensemble work. Classic big bands are the crowning glory of the middle of the last century.