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.
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early '30s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era, when people were dancing the Lindy Hop. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Django Reinhardt.
The swing era was the period (1933–1947) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, and Fletcher Henderson, and white bands from the 1920s led by the likes of Jean Goldkette, Russ Morgan and Isham Jones. An early milestone in the era was from "the King of Swing" Benny Goodman's performance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, bringing the music to the rest of the country. The 1930s also became the era of other great soloists: the tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Lester Young; the alto saxophonists Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges; the drummers Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Jo Jones and Sid Catlett; the pianists Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson; the trumpeters Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Bunny Berigan, and Rex Stewart.
Irving Harold Mills was an American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz promoter. He often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.
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.
Doug Lawrence is an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
One O'Clock Lab Band is an ensemble of the Jazz Studies division at the University of North Texas College of Music in Denton, Texas. Since the 1970s, the band's albums have received seven Grammy Award nominations, including two for Lab 2009. Steve Wiest directed the band from 2008 to 2014. Jay Saunders became interim director in 2014.
Robert Sage Wilber was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and band leader. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber was a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz pieces in a contemporary manner. He played with many distinguished jazz leaders in the 1950s and 1960s, including Bobby Hackett, Benny Goodman, Sidney Bechet, Jack Teagarden and Eddie Condon. In the late 1960s, he was an original member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and in the early 70s of Soprano Summit, a band which gained wide attention. In the late 1970s, he formed the Bechet Legacy Band.
Jay Randall Sandke is a jazz trumpeter and guitarist.
Loren Schoenberg is a tenor saxophonist, conductor, educator, and jazz historian. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes. He is the former Executive Director and currently Senior Scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
Scott Robinson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. Robinson is best known for his work on multiple saxophones, but he has also performed on clarinet, alto clarinet, flute, trumpet, sarrusophone, and other, more obscure instruments.
George Masso was an American jazz trombonist, bandleader, vibraphonist, and composer specializing in swing and Dixieland. Masso is notable for his work from 1948–1950 as a member of the Jimmy Dorsey band.
Edward Joseph Bertolatus, also known as Eddie Bert, was an American jazz trombonist.
Charles Dee Wilson was an American jazz alto saxophonist.
The Jazz Knights was the jazz ensemble of the United States Military Academy Band stationed at West Point, New York; it was one of the premiere jazz ensembles of the United States Army Special Bands. Originally created in 1972, they carried the tradition of American Jazz and entertain the Corps of Cadets, the “JK's” were a professional big band rehearsing for the purpose of presenting jazz ensemble music. The ensemble's mission was to serve the United States Military Academy and the American public.
Chris Flory is an American jazz guitarist.
Anthony Branker is an American musician and educator of Caribbean descent.
Jerry "Buck" Jerome was an American jazz and big band musician, a tenor saxophonist. He played with Glenn Miller, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
The American Jazz Orchestra was an American big band jazz ensemble founded in New York City, active from 1986 to 1993.
MusicMasters was a record label based in Ocean, New Jersey.
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