A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra. Other music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo wop groups. In both popular music and classical music, there are ensembles in which both instrumentalists and singers perform, such as the rock band or the Baroque chamber group for basso continuo and one or more singers. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. Some ensembles blend the sounds of a variety of instrument families, such as the orchestra, which uses a string section, brass instruments, woodwinds and percussion instruments, or the concert band, which uses brass, woodwinds and percussion.
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first-call studio musician in Hollywood. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed regularly with the L. A. Four. Shank ultimately abandoned the flute to focus exclusively on playing jazz on the alto saxophone. He also recorded on tenor and baritone sax. His most famous recording is probably the version of "Harlem Nocturne" used as the theme song in Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. He is also well known for the alto flute solo on the song "California Dreamin'" recorded by The Mamas & the Papas in 1965.
Lewis Barry Tabackin is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flutist. He is married to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi with whom he has co-led large ensembles since the 1970s.
James Garland Riggs is an American saxophonist in classical and jazz idioms, big band director, collegiate music educator, and international music clinician. He is also a University of North Texas Regents Professor Emeritus.
Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.
William Edward Childs is an American composer, jazz pianist, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States.
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, or simply The Big Phat Band, is an 18-piece jazz orchestra that combines the big band swing of the 1930s and 1940s with contemporary music such as funk and jazz fusion. The band is led by Gordon Goodwin, who arranges, composes, plays piano and saxophone. Since its origin, the Big Phat Band has received several Grammy Awards and many Grammy nominations.
William Marcel "Buddy" Collette was an American jazz flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet.
John E. Ferritto was an American composer, conductor, and music professor.
Gerald Stanley Wilson was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.
Paul Hanson is an American bassoonist, saxophonist, duduk player, and composer with roots in jazz and classical music.
Dave Edwards was an American big band-style musician who most notably was the lead alto saxophonist and multireedist for the long running weekly television series, The Lawrence Welk Show from 1968 through 1979.
"I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" is a pop and jazz standard with music by Duke Ellington and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster published in 1941. It was introduced in the musical revue Jump for Joy by Ivie Anderson, who also provided the vocals for Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on the single Victor 27531. Recordings to reach the Billboard charts in 1941/42 were by Duke Ellington (#13) and by Benny Goodman (vocal by Peggy Lee) (#25).
Scheila Gonzalez is an American Grammy winning multi-instrumentalist and music educator. She is best known for playing the saxophone and other instruments in the all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra and with artists such as Dweezil Zappa, Alex Acuña, Ray Parker Jr. and many others. Formerly a full-time member of the Zappa Plays Zappa world tour, since 2019 Gonzalez has been touring with Colin Hay as part of a revived and revamped Men at Work lineup, where she sings and plays the alto saxophone as well as several other instruments.
Herbert Arnold Geller was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was born in Los Angeles.
Don Raffell was an American saxophonist, woodwind doubler (multireedist), studio musician and educator. Raffell recorded on hundreds of records, movies, and T.V shows dating from the 1940s all the way through the 1990s. His career as a studio musician was long and stylistically diverse having started in the big band era and playing all the way up through rock n' roll and other modern pop era acts. He had a long time close professional association with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle.
Norman Gary Foster is an American musician who plays saxophone, clarinet, and flute. He is considered a crossover artist, performing jazz, pop, and classical music. He has been prominent in the film, television, and music industries for five decades, having performed on over 500 movie scores and with over 200 orchestras.
Diversions is a 1987 album released by the California State University, Los Angeles Jazz Ensemble, it featured the Charles Richard Suite for Jazz Orchestra which was premiered by Dave Edwards earlier that year. This group proved to be one of the finest college jazz orchestras of that era with having placed in the finals of the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival. The jazz band had numerous student musicians that have made a name for themselves as professionals to include Sharon Hirata, Luis Bonilla, Jack Cooper, Charlie Richard, Eric "Bobo" Correa, Vince Dublino, Alan Parr, and José Arellano.
Jack Cooper is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, multireedist, and music educator. He has performed with, written music for and recorded by internationally known pop, jazz, and classical artists.
