Alabama has played a central role in the development of both blues and country music. Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute's School of Music, especially the Tuskegee Choir, is an internationally renowned institution. There are three major modern orchestras, the Mobile Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra; the last is the oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in the state, giving its first performance in 1955.
Cleveland Josephus Eaton II is an American jazz double bassist, producer, arranger, composer, publisher, and head of his own record company from Fairfield, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. His most famous accomplishments are playing with the Ramsey Lewis Trio and the Count Basie Orchestra. His 1975 recording Plenty Good Eaton is considered a classic in the funk music genre. He has been inducted into both the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
The Carver Theatre, now formally known as the Carver Performing Arts Center, is a theater located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. In its days as a motion picture theater, it was best known as a place where African-Americans could see first-run movies; during that time, only whites were allowed in most theaters because of segregation laws.
Ten Gallon Shuffle is the first recording released by the New York-based Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. The composition Ten Gallon Shuffle was originally commissioned by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity for the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra.
The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra: Strive for Jive is a live video recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin in a jazz club setting. The video was apparently recorded in the mid 1980s in Chicago and first released on VHS video tape around 1993 and on DVD in 2009.
Caribbean Jazz Project was a Latin jazz band founded in 1993. The original group featured Dave Samuels, Paquito D'Rivera, and Andy Narell. After their second album, D'Rivera and Narell left the group, although both returned as guest stars. Under Samuels' leadership, the group explored different genres of latin jazz with a changing membership and numerous guest artists. The band released nine albums under the Caribbean Jazz Project name and one as the featured backing band for jazz singer Diane Schuur. The final album with Samuels, Afro Bop Alliance, featured the Maryland-based Afro Bop Alliance Big Band led by drummer Joe McCarthy and won the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. McCarthy's latin jazz big band continues to record under its own name, and Samuels retains the group's name.
Raymond Everett Reach, Jr. is an American pianist, vocalist, guitarist, composer, arranger, music producer and educator, named by AL.com as one of "30 Alabamians who changed jazz history." He serves as President and CEO of Ray Reach Music and Magic City Music Productions.
The Magic City Jazz Orchestra (MCJO) is an American jazz ensemble which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the SuperJazz Big Band by Birmingham, Alabama jazz pianist and vocalist Ray Reach. The mission of the group is to "...perform and record big band jazz music written by well known but under-recorded jazz artists."
Steve Sample Sr. is a bandleader, arranger, composer and jazz educator now residing in Bellingham, Washington. For more than 30 years, Sample was a professor in the Music Department of the University of Alabama, where he directed the Jazz Ensembles and taught music theory, arranging and jazz related courses. Sample trained many notable jazz musicians during his long tenure at Alabama, including Gary Wheat, Birch Johnson, Kelley O'Neal, Chris Gordon, Mervyn Warren, Cedric Dent, Beth Gottlieb, Mart Avant, Dick Aven and Ray Reach. He is respected by his peers as one of the finest jazz educators in the United States. On September 26, 2008, Sample was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his contributions to jazz education.
The Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival is a one-day jazz festival which has been presented annually since 2003 in Birmingham's Historic 4th Avenue District downtown. In past years, it was sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (AJHoF) and Urban Impact. Beginning in 2011, the festival was presented by Magic City Smooth Jazz. The event offers jazz music, food, swing dance lessons and exhibits, and presents nationally known jazz artists and local jazz artists.
The W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars is a group of jazz musicians who play annually at the W. C. Handy Music Festival in Florence, Alabama. During the last week of July each year, these musicians travel from all over the United States to gather in Florence and perform in various combinations. In addition to performing jazz, members of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars serve as the resident faculty of the W. C. Handy Jazz Camp, also teaching the "A B Cs of Jazz, Blues and Beyond".
Sound Venture is a jazz album recorded by Georgie Fame and the Harry South Big Band in 1966. Featuring many of Britain's top jazz musicians, and arranged by big band arranger Harry South, it marked a departure from Fame's R&B hits with the Blue Flames. The record peaked at number 9 on the national albums chart in the UK.
The W. C. Handy Jazz Camp is sponsored jointly by the W. C. Handy Music Festival and the University of North Alabama (UNA), and is held annually in Florence, Alabama. Every year, the camp features an accomplished faculty, all members of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars.
The "Fun With Jazz" Educational Program is a program of jazz educational concerts and demonstrations developed by Ray Reach and sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
UAB SuperJazz, Featuring Ellis Marsalis is a CD, recorded in 2001 by the SuperJazz Big Band of Birmingham, Alabama with guest piano soloist Ellis Marsalis. The recording, produced by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty members Ray Reach and Henry Panion, is a compilation of musical selections recorded in concert at the Alys Stephens Center on the campus of UAB. The album was mixed at the UAB Recording Studio. Recording engineers for the project were Blake English and James Bevelle. Remix engineers were James Bevelle and Ray Reach.
88 Basie Street is a 1983 studio album by Count Basie.
Live at the Royal Festival Hall is an album by Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nation Orchestra. It won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1991. The concert was also released on DVD.
Big Boss Band is the 1990 studio album of George Benson on Warner Bros. featuring the Count Basie Orchestra. This is Benson's second consecutive album which returns to his jazz roots after his successful pop career in the 1980s, and also his debut as sole producer of an album. The genre is mainly big band swing with some Michel Legrand and R&B thrown in.
Farewell is a live album by jazz composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Gil Evans which was released posthumously to address for the deceased. This album was recorded by King Records (Japan) in New York in 1986 featuring Evans with his Monday Night Orchestra which included Hamiet Bluiett, Bill Evans, and Johnny Coles and originally released in the US on the Evidence label.
Quincy's Home Again is an album by Quincy Jones with performances by Harry Arnold's Orchestra. The album was recorded in Sweden in 1958 and released by Metronome. The album was also released in the U.S. as Harry Arnold + Big Band + Quincy Jones = Jazz! by EmArcy.