“Big band music” isn’t everybody’s first thought when they’re pondering what to punch into Spotify, we’ll grant you that. But if all big bands make you think of is “jazz hands” and flappers and early black-and-white films, let’s take five minutes to change that.
Of course, the best way to experience a jazz orchestra is not on a streaming platform — it’s live. The format was first built in the 1920s and ’30s to satisfy Lindy hoppers and other young dancers across the country. The real point of getting more than a dozen horn players together with a rhythm section is to blast you with layers of rhythm: A big band is a sonic engine, with interlocking gears and heat and pulse.
Still, with great writing, jazz orchestras can also be fun to hear up close on recordings. At this point, it’s been over half a century since most big bands made actual dance music, anyway. What has really kept the big band alive is its attractiveness to creative jazz composers seeking a larger canvas. The big band has been embraced over the years by jazz’s left wing (David Murray, Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, Horace Tapscott and of course Sun Ra), by innovators after something closer to a Third Stream fusing classical and jazz (Toshiko Akiyoshi and Maria Schneider), and recently by a veritable movement of under-50 composer-bandleaders like Darcy James Argue, Miho Hazama, Igmar Thomas and Anna Webber.
For a primer on the big band canon, look no further than the 12 picks below, courtesy of musicians and writers who know the medium well. You can find a playlist at the end of the article, and be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments.
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Ted Nash, saxophonist and composer
“A Tone Parallel to Harlem” by Duke Ellington
“Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.” Duke Ellington could say so much with very little. With “A Tone Parallel to Harlem,” a long-form piece that evokes vibrant neighborhoods in New York City, Duke, in just under 14 minutes, expresses everything I love about music: swing, grooves, simple themes, development, complex harmony, tension, release, expressive dynamics, featured soloists and the blues. Though it was originally commissioned by Arturo Toscanini in 1950, as part of a larger New York City-inspired orchestral suite, Toscanini never conducted it. In his memoirs, Duke describes composing “Harlem” on a sea voyage from Europe to the United States. I can’t help thinking about Duke’s reflections on returning to his home while composing this poignant masterpiece.
In 1999, a year after I joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, we celebrated Duke’s centennial by playing exclusively his music for that whole year. As we started the season, I was skeptical — which exposed my ignorance. Over that year I learned not only about Duke Ellington but about music. When I first heard “Harlem,” it changed me. It allowed me to discover the power of musical expression. Through his music, Duke teaches us about being human. When we listen with our hearts, we have the opportunity to become better people.
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Ulysses Owens, drummer and bandleader
“Splanky” by Count Basie
On “Splanky,” from Count Basie’s “Live at the Sands (Before Frank),” just before the saxophonist Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis unleashes a brilliant solo, someone within shouting range of the microphones says: “Kill it!” It’s one of many endearing, improvised moments captured on this classic, if unheralded, live album. Basie’s big band was performing this popular Neal Hefti composition for a “warm-up” set at the Sands, the historic Las Vegas hotel and casino. This was 1966, when Basie and Frank Sinatra recorded their more widely known album at the Sands. But the warm-up LP is undeniably more swingin’. Within the 14 songs released from that set, you’ll find all of the quintessential motifs — and the sound — that have influenced virtually every big band in the years since.
The major components of a big band, especially those of the 1960s, are: five saxophones; four trombones; four trumpets; and a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. Obviously, Basie’s big bands stood out for having “The Kid from Red Bank” on piano. But what made the Count’s rhythm section different was the addition of the guitarist Freddie Green, who established a new way of approaching time within the big band, mostly by intensifying the pulse of the swing rhythm.
This arrangement of “Splanky” features all the big-band elements that made the music so enthralling. It’s got a classic, post-solo “shout chorus” and bombastic drum fills courtesy of the great Sonny Payne. It all comes to a close with Basie deploying his signature ending: three gorgeous chords at the upper register of the piano. When you hear them, it’s a good night.
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Darcy James Argue, composer and bandleader
“Manteca” by Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra
One of the things I always love to hear, wherever I hear it, is an additive texture: a series of rhythmic figures being built up layer by layer, the various instruments collaborating in some kind of explosive mixture. The intro to “Manteca” is among the very best examples of this. It’s the brainchild of the Cuban conguero Chano Pozo, who did not read sheet music but knew what he wanted, singing each part in turn to Gillespie: “Bajo: buh-duh-ba-buh-DAH-bim-bim-BOM. Saxofones: bom-BIM, bom-BIM, bom-BIM,” and so on. Dizzy took it all down, added a 16-bar bridge with a soaring melody and a succulent harmonic progression, and passed it to the arranger Gil Fuller to put some meat on the bones. The result, recorded in 1947, is timelessly thrilling: from the slinky congas-and-bass groove that kicks it off, to the classic call-and-response theme with the incendiary brass shakes, to the short-and-sweet solo turns from Gillespie and the tenor saxophonist “Big Nick” Nicholas. “Manteca” wasn’t the first recording to combine bebop with Afro-Cuban concepts, but it’s certainly one of the most impactful: As Dizzy said, “It was similar to a nuclear weapon when it burst on the scene.”
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Jim McNeely, pianist, composer and arranger
“The Groove Merchant” by Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra started as a rehearsal band, then started playing the Village Vanguard in 1966. Through the connections of both Thad and Mel among studio musicians, it became this collection of great players. And this video represents that, with Snooky Young’s lead trumpet, the excellent saxophone section, and the one thing that especially kills me here: Roland Hanna’s piano playing.
Thad Jones didn’t write this tune — it’s a Jerome Richardson composition — but he arranged it. And you can hear how he was influenced by his time with Count Basie, where the role of the piano solo was very structural in the arrangement. It was never just a piano’s chance to blow. Roland plays an incredible solo in this video, and does a perfect job of setting up the vibe of the whole arrangement. Same thing on Richard Davis’s bass solo — you can see Thad conducting the band through that solo, bringing it down until it basically stops, then building back up again. Again, the solo wasn’t just a chance to blow. It really had a shape to it. And Thad was a big part of that.
And then the arrangement itself: I think Thad, like Ellington and Strayhorn and a lot of great arrangers, knew that people would enjoy pretty dense harmony as long as it was swinging like crazy. That, to me, is one of the great tensions in Thad’s writing: There are some harmonic things that, if you just heard that one chord, you’d say, My God, what is that? But it’s swinging so hard, it makes you tap your foot and move your body.
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Marcus J. Moore, jazz writer
“Impact” by Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. & Orchestra
By the time Charles Tolliver released the album “Impact” on his own Strata-East record label in 1976, big bands were considered a thing of the past. Thanks to James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Sly & the Family Stone, funk was the Black music of choice, and even jazz purveyors like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock had abandoned traditional aspects of the genre for bigger sounds and broader commercial appeal. So I’ve long admired Tolliver for sticking to his creative vision. For “Impact” (and, for that matter, 1971’s “Music Inc.,” the first album ever released on Strata-East), the notion of convergence came through. It was the feeling of past meeting present, where Tolliver acknowledged the current state of jazz while paying homage to the symphonies of yesteryear. On “Impact,” the opening moments of the title song tinker with darkness and light, emitting a cinematic tone before launching into bright flourishes. It’s crime saga chase scene meets late-night TV intro. Brassy and hip, stately yet welcoming. It’s not until you speak with Tolliver that you know that’s just who he is: a pillar who commands respect but isn’t so buttoned-up. Throughout the song, Tolliver reminds us that funk isn’t the only festive music. Jazz can uplift without sacrificing the message and the groove.
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Anna Webber, saxophonist, composer and bandleader
“22-M (Opus 58)” by Anthony Braxton
A lot of people don’t feel like they “fit” at jazz school, and I think people especially feel that way about being in big band at jazz school. I was certainly one of those people. It turned me off from big bands for a long time. Years later, doing my master’s thesis, I got an assignment to write a big band chart. And I finally started to find big bands that I liked. I didn’t come to Anthony Braxton’s “Creative Orchestra Music 1976” until even later, but this is the No. 1 album I wish I could’ve shown myself back in undergrad, to totally change my perspective on big bands. First of all, it’s just really fun. Braxton is a deep intellect, and he’s written volumes about his music, but in the end this is just such a joyful composition. Despite the ambition and the intensity of it, I think it’s that joyfulness that really brings me in. It starts off sounding like a marching band, then goes into this other world of minimalism, improv, loops. It’s just wild. And by the way, it’s worth mentioning that on the original album cover, all of the track titles are pictograms.
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Christian McBride, bassist, composer and bandleader
“The Birth of a Band” by Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones was a legend long before he met Michael Jackson. And this album, “The Birth of a Band,” was made just before he went on that infamous European tour of 1960, when Quincy ran out of money and had to go through the pain of learning firsthand about the business of music.
I’ve always thought Quincy should be recognized as the genius that he is not just as a producer, but as a writer. That continued to be true through all of his film scoring — “In Cold Blood” and “The Out of Towners” — and some of his more modern big band records, like “Walking in Space” and “Gula Matari.” But I chose “The Birth of a Band” here because it’s the perfect record for schooling someone on the basics of big band music: lots of sophisticated writing but also very listenable, swinging real hard. And all of the primary soloists — on this track it’s Jerome Richardson and Zoot Sims — are at the top of their game.
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Ted Panken, jazz journalist
“September in the Rain” by Roy Hargrove Big Band
This ebullient performance by the 19-piece Roy Hargrove Big Band of the leader’s arrangement of Harry Warren’s “September in the Rain” at the 2009 Jazz à Vienne Festival is a wonderful example of the attributes that made Hargrove (1969-2018) a beloved figure within the worlds of Afro-diasporic-oriented jazz and popular music that he navigated throughout his 30-year career. “Roy could play swing, bebop, blues, R&B, funk, rap — but it was all real when he did it,” the trumpeter Theo Croker told me the year after Hargrove’s death. “It never sounds out of place.” “His sound was unique,” Keyon Harrold added. “From a ballad to the fiery fast stuff, he put his whole self into every note, and they resonated with a certain zeal and urgency.”
That Hargrove imbued his big band with those qualities is palpable throughout the clip, as the members project sophisticated harmonic and improvisational ideas with an attitude of serious — and not so serious — fun through an abiding focus on rhythm, movement and melody. The introductory ensemble passages evoke the declarative swagger of Dizzy Gillespie’s underrecognized mid-1950s big band, whose harmonic language Hargrove absorbed in his role as third trumpet in the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band during the previous decade. He further channels Gillespie — and Gillespie’s primary influence, Roy Eldridge — with a simple melody statement delivered with a singer’s mind-set, in contrast to the florid complexity of these lines and a subsequent vertiginous shout chorus. Soon thereafter, Hargrove passes the baton to his up-and-coming 23-year-old pianist, Jonathan Batiste, who uncorks an ingenious invention — think Basie meets Monk meets John Lewis — that elicits smiles across the bandstand. The band trades passages with the drummer Montez Coleman, setting up Hargrove to deliver the lyric without embellishment. Then he transitions to scat, chanting the syllables to his partners in a protracted call-and-response over a concluding vamp.
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Giovanni Russonello, jazz critic
“America the Beautiful” by Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra
Carla Bley wrote this arrangement of “America the Beautiful” for the bassist Charlie Haden and his Liberation Music Orchestra (a “little” big band, with 12 members) around the time of the United States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, and a streak of darkened disgust pervades it. She has made the familiar melody secondary to a series of dragging, almost funereal harmonies, scraping their feet along the pavement, not quite making it to consonance. Then in comes a young Miguel Zenón, the prominent Puerto Rican saxophonist, bursting out of the dark with a writhing cadenza. The band eventually falls into a comfortable 6/8 swing, but none of the beauty is peaceful. After the five-minute mark, the arrangement incorporates “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” and continues rising.
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Gary Giddins, jazz critic and author
“Tourist Point of View” by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite” (1967) was the last masterwork to emerge from an unparalleled 28-year collaboration with Billy Strayhorn: a canvas made up of nine dazzling miniatures burnished with dissonance, dynamics and a panoply of orchestral colors, sumptuous melodies, varied rhythms and sensational solos. “Tourist Point of View” is the drolly ominous overture, introducing the tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves with four discords, a tricky bass and drums pulse, and a deep-bellied snake-charmer theme. Then off he goes, ingeniously navigating an uneven terrain (choruses of varying length, mostly 20 or 16 bars) accompanied by lithe riffs, the ensemble reserving its power until it explodes with the shrill elation of Cat Anderson’s trumpet. It’s a petrifying blast, but Gonsalves holds his own and eases his journey with an elegantly descending arpeggio, before disappearing into the mist of bass and drums.
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Satoko Fujii, pianist, composer and bandleader
“The Curve” by La Pieuvre
I love the energy of the Lille, France-based large ensemble La Pieuvre. In this 2011 performance of “The Curve,” Olivier Benoit leads the large ensemble in engrossing, propulsive music that extends and evolves the proud history of big band jazz. Historically, the best big bands break barriers to find new ways of interacting musically, rhythmically and harmonically. La Pieuvre’s rich harmonies, distinctive use of vocals and sonic storytelling are perfect examples of this. Each member has their own individual sound and expression, yet together their music is unified and exciting. Benoit, a great composer and conductor who left La Pieuvre to pursue other creative music outlets including a position as a director of Orchestre National de Jazz, understands how to let the music unfold, taking time to develop material and knowing just when to transition to a new statement. Musicians in large ensembles, regardless of style, must have big ears and big hearts. It’s this listening and responding to one another that takes a big band to its highest level. La Pieuvre is filled with musicians who hear each other deeply, love making music in the moment, and connect freely, openly and courageously as they expand the concept of big band music to include free jazz, rock, electronics and more. “The Curve” turns on a dime from exquisite, serene quiet to loud, bracing passion and beyond. It’s encouraging and exhilarating to hear an ensemble like La Pieuvre continue to grow the big band mantle.
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Ryan Truesdell, composer and arranger
“Hello and Goodbye” by Bob Brookmeyer with Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra
I was bitten by the big band bug early on. Standing in front of a big band, feeling the music surge toward you with the force of a sonic freight train, sends a charge of electricity through your body like a lightning strike.
I felt it when I first discovered the valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer’s composing and arranging from his notable tenures with the bands of Gerry Mulligan and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, but it was upon hearing “Hello and Goodbye” for the first time that my world shifted. The piece embodies every aspect of big band that we love — energy, excitement, surprise, swing (thank you, Mel Lewis!) — but through Bob’s pencil, these elements are synthesized with innovation, artistry and sophistication. “Hello and Goodbye” (and the album as a whole) revolutionized contemporary big band composition, liberating form and harmony from prior constraints and influencing nearly every modern big band composer since 1980. Bob made writing for big band “serious business” while still approachable and enjoyable for all, by way of his fluidity of phrase, tongue-in-cheek humor, and natural gift for creating a melody that will leave you humming for days.
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