TromboneChat

Hello all, I'm interested in listening to live Big Band Jazz but I don't know how to find upcoming performances. Help?

There are only a few touring professional big bands, and tour schedules are on their Web sites. You might also want to check on schedules for the Airmen of Note (US Air Force) and Army Blues (US Army).

Amateur Big Bands are all over the country. If you indicate where you are, I'm sure a member of one will tell you when they are playing -- I'd bet someone from nearly every amateur Big Band in the US (and maybe in the world) is a member here.

Find out who are the performing ensembles in your area and get their performance schedules.

I live in Cleveland, Ohio and right off can think of 8 local big bands of various quality that play gigs along with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. Where do you live?

We could help a little better if we knew where you live

trombinstharry wrote: ↑Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:29 pm Hello all, I'm interested in listening to live Big Band Jazz but I don't know how to find upcoming performances. Help?

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Tell us where you are. Search the internet and you'll find some bands to listen to in a live setting.

In Chicagoland there's too many to count. One or two really great, some just okay, and some rotten. In fact there's so many mediocre ones that the great lead trumpet player, Roger Ingram, and yours truly planned on starting one. A SWINGING one, because most bands today just... do... not... swing!

The problem is, the guys that really, and I mean really know how to swing are becoming a rarity. Old age and what not. My particular what not is the fact that after a long career and thousands of gigs later I am retiring and moving to Missouri in October. Yay!

However, Roger is planning on doing the band with a young and rare for her age swinging tenor player. I wish them luck.

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ExZacLee wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:44 pm We could help a little better if we knew where you live

That must be a big secret.

A great place to heard big bands is Youtube. All the premier military bands like Airmen of Note and Army Blues have a channel. You can spend hours or days listening to great stuff.

There's not going to be one place to look; you'll have to check various places on a regular basis.

One thing you can do is get on emailing lists for the local performance venues. It's kind of a hassle sifting through all the stuff you're not interest in, but it's worth it to know when something good is coming to town. Not just "professional" venues, either - keep an eye on the local college and university calendars, too. Not only do they have some pretty good groups of their own, they also sometimes get professional groups - particularly if they have a really nice facility.

Another source for live performance info is your local swing dance community (assuming you have one). They usually have some sort of web presence where they get the word out when there's a chance to dance to a live band. Even if that sort of music isn't your thing, that can lead you to some of the active bands in your area. Probably at least some of those bands also play jazz gigs.

I'm in central eastern florida. I know of the Maitland Stage band and Orlando Big Band n such.

If you don't mind driving, check out some gigs by university big bands. In Florida you should be able to catch excellent performances at the University of South Florida and University of Miami, just to name a couple of the big schools. You'd have to wait for them to go back to school in the fall, though.

here's a few places you can check out regularly to see what they have going on...

http://www.goldcoastjazz.org/concerts-e ... estra.html

http://floridabigband.com/aboutus.php

https://www.wucf.org/listen/jazz-calendar/

https://heidisjazzclub.com/musicians

https://timucua.com

as well, as look on the university websites to see when their big bands are performing. Miami's Frost school of music has a great program, the Concert Jazz ensemble directed by John Daversa is solid.