I haven’t listened to any recordings - I’ve only heard them live - but Lyle Lovett’s “Large” band can rock pretty good when they’re doing the swing band sound.
Absolutely - fine music.
Long ago, I went to see Sun Ra & his Arkestra at [del]an abandoned warehouse[/del] the original Lawndale Art Center. The Arkestra was definitely a big band. (It still is–with a new director, since Sun Ra has left the planet.) And they definitely played jazz–some of it very advanced for my tender hippy ears. But much of the music was tuneful & quite accessible.
Sun Ra made a ton of recordings, but I haven’t a clue on where to start. Perhaps a Ra-expert will drop by & make some recommendations.
For both of us.
Update: I’ve written out a nice long list of recommendations and put it in my library bag, so will be looking for these over the next few months. Thanks to all who posted!
Short term, I bought two CDs:
and
Both excellent – thanks again!
Awesome! So - how’s Saturday Night Fish Fry??? Or Is You Is…? Or Salt Pork, West Virginia? Or Caledonia? Or…
“Is You Is…” is my favorite of these – it’s such an excellent song, and such an excellent version of it.
And “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens.”
I love that cartoon! It’s the first thing I think of when I hear “Is You Is” also.
Pure genius. Louis is the man, but that version rocks.
And **twicks **- oh yeah! I love that one, too. Just a solid collection end to end…
The OP ought to dig John Coltrane’s Complete Africa/Brass Sessions, highlighted by a sumptuously swinging version of “Greensleeves.”
I’ll add it to the list, thanks!
(And Lute – excellent cartoon, thanks! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one before.)
Calloway is awesome, but I’m not sure he’s really considered typical big band. His music is definitely not swing; I’d say it’s somewhere in between 1920s era hot jazz, for example Jelly Roll Morton’s Hot Peppers, and 1930s era swing.
Everything said above, +1. But one of the only very few contemporary BIG bands put together on record I think is worth springing for is led by Danny D’Imperio. Big Band Bloviation 1 and 2. There’s only a handful of really top-drawer stuff being made today, and this is right up there. Some of the other stuff I’ve heard is fine, but there aren’t all that many real masters of jazz of any genre playing, let alone stretching out in this format.
Joe Henderson’s big band record is a classic by now, even though made not too long ago – every pianist I know or have ever talked to is in love with Chick Corea’s comping on the cuts he made from this album.
I’m not that familiar with what Sue Mingus’s “CM Big Band” has on record, but when I used to hear them live they had a revolving-door thing with about every name musician in NY.
Maybe the Mingus BB is the only real “band” – aside from a recording group – of the three, but the three taken as a whole represent certainly the top of the art in the past fifteen years (that is, not retro, primarily dance music, but good art).
I should make clear this is really only talking about recent stuff – the classics in this genre are easy enough to find and well known beyond belief.
I don’t know why, twicks, but somehow I think you might like Don Byron’s Bug Music. Plenty of chair dancing on this one!
My absolute favorite track is “The Quintet Does Carmen.” (Sounds like the title of porn movie, doesn’t it?) When I first got the CD, I didn’t care that much for “Charles Prelude” (because it’s not a chair dancing kind of piece), and then one day the light bulb went on. :smack: It’s based on a Chopin’s “Tristesse” etude, which is one of my favorite Chopin pieces.
I listened to the samples – that seems like a fun album!
Good point. Not all music played by a section-voiced, brass-and-reeds dance orchestra is “big band music.” It pretty much has to:
a) post-date the early 1930s,
b) not be overtly “sweet” sounding (ballads are OK though), and
c) not use a string section, unless it’s a great big one as in the WW2 era Dorsey & James bands.
Furthermore, as SoP also perspicaciously points out, not all music that swings is swing music. Calloway’s band always swung, but it did have something of an early 30s sound until well into the late 30s. The key is the “triplet feel” eighth note phrasing. Straight eighth note playing can be very exciting and even persisted well into the swing era with some groups, but it’s not classic swing. For one thing, people today find it a lot harder to dance to, even if they can’t always tell you why.
A late reply, but I just picked this up:
Bob Curnow was with Stan Kenton way back when. I got to hear this stuff performed live recently at a university jazz festival. This ain’t no easy-listening new-age bullshit. The First Circle, in particular, rocks.