Why not more Big-Band Jazz?

[Northern Thunder]

Similarly, Pennsylvania 6-5000 hasn't been used since 1975.

The Hamilton Knights did "6-5000" in '83 and '84.

[Tom Brace]

Out of sheer curiosity, I went into corpsreps, and looked up the performance dates, for some standards of the big band/swing era. I looked for the last performance by a World Class corps. Here is what I found:

The last rendition of Glen Miller's classic "In the Mood" was done ten years ago, by the Crossmen.

The last rendition of The Andrews Sisters ' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" was eight years ago, by the Cadets. (That was the year that the Cadets did a WWII retrospective show.)

Cab Calloway's classic "Minnie the Moocher"? The last performance by any junior corps was in 1999.

The last rendition of Tommy Dorsey's "Stardust"? That was in 1984, by the Colts. (Stardust would make a tremendous ballad.) The last rendition of "Opus One"? 1978. (That was actually written by Lionel Hampton.)

I say......it is time for these tunes to be revived! Seriously, if a corps next year does these 5 songs for their repertoire next year, I will pay good money to see it. Heck, I would probably pay airfare, to fly to a show to see it! I might even go to Finals to see it! (Well, I'd probably skip LOS and go to Allentown instead.)

Sadly, I can think of perhaps one corps right now, who would do this. That would be the Scouts. I hope Mr. Komnick and Mr. Mason are paying attention here.

p.s., not all the great musicians and band leaders of the swing/big band era were white. Calloway and Hampton were both black. So this is not an attempt to bring back more music from "dead white guys". It is about preserving part of our musical heritage, that is vanishing from our collective conscience - quickly. I played a number of these tunes back during my youth.... and I don't want them to disappear.

Suffice to say, big band jazz is best performed by....wait for it...big bands. As others have said, give me a great sax section of 6-8 saxes (depending if it's a Kenton tune) 5 trombones, 5 trumpets, and a rhythm section on an elevated bandstand and I'm all there. I am a HUGE big band fan. Give me those Sammy Nestico charts with the Basie Band...and do we even need to discuss the contributions of the Ellington band? How about Lionel Hamption...love his stuff. Tito Puente, Woody Herman...I could fill a page.

However, I am of the opinion that big band jazz is not the best vehicle for drum corps for the following reasons.

1. Rhythm section. I've never liked the transposed parts for battery. They have never quite made it compared to the in the pocket sense I get from a seasoned piano, bass and drums with an occasional jazz guitar thrown in.

2. Trombones. I don't want trombones on the drum corps field but I desperately want them in my big band jazz music. This is my biggest game breaker.

3. Reed section. Go back and listen to those killer sax sectionals that Nestico wrote for the Basie Band. They are simply stellar. Can't get it on the field and I don't want it there.

4. Venue. Big Band = dance floor. Drum corps = stadium.

5. Subtlety and nuance. Big Band balances those powerful brass (what in drum corps translates to park and blows) moments with the more subtle sections. For instance, pick any Basie tune and go back and listen to his tasty licks on the keys. Subtle. Missed sometimes in the intended venue...absent in the drum corps offerings.

6. This has been discussed before but younger musicians have a difficult time playing jazz. It's pretty easy to find the 27 in a college for the jazz band, but 100 drum corps kids? Yeah, that's a much tougher score here. It's the duple-triple thing, the syncopation, the difference from the eighth/dotted sixteenth played by the HS Marching Band and the same licks played by the 27 kids in the HS "A" Jazz Band.

7. Jazz education severely lacks in many areas of the country and is one of the first programs downsized. Band is more difficult...194 band kids boost the student/teacher ratio numbers...the 27:1 jazz band ratio is less than many districts' class average. Jazz is uniquely American, but I would wager the Japanese and Germans currently do a better job of teaching it to young people.

So much of big band literature does not translate to the field.

[luvscorps]

Sustained melodic phrases have been outlawed. Or at least shunned like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.

That's why.

(IMHO)

[WOOHOO]

Sustained melodic phrases have been outlawed. Or at least shunned like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.

That's why.

(IMHO)

What does that have to do with Big Band Jazz? Plenty of that music has fragmented melodies.

[Jeff Ream]

Tom,

I think some great stuff was been written for jazz shows for percussion in the drum corps activity. Some of the older Coats stuff, great Crossmen lines, BD back in the day, Bayonne....you just need an arranger that knows how to groove beyond just making the head bob on downbeats.

[Tom Brace]

Tom,

I think some great stuff was been written for jazz shows for percussion in the drum corps activity. Some of the older Coats stuff, great Crossmen lines, BD back in the day, Bayonne....you just need an arranger that knows how to groove beyond just making the head bob on downbeats.

that and the players cut to play it. Mostly, today, the corps I see just mic a trap set player in the pit and let the battery just play hits and accents.

But, drum corps is so vastly inferior an ensemble to an even average 27 person stage band, IMO.

[Jeff Ream]

wow. really? I'll remember this statement while I listen to 86 BD tonight.

[Tom Brace]

wow. really? I'll remember this statement while I listen to 86 BD tonight.

Yeah...enjoy the sax parts. Oh, they won't be there. And enjoy the trombones...ooops...not there either.

You'll never get me convinced that a drum corps on a football field, no matter how good is an adequate substitute for a solid 27 member jazz band performing the same chart.

Apples and cucumbers. Can't substitute.

[Hrothgar15]

Yeah...enjoy the sax parts. Oh, they won't be there. And enjoy the trombones...ooops...not there either.

You'll never get me convinced that a drum corps on a football field, no matter how good is an adequate substitute for a solid 27 member jazz band performing the same chart.

Apples and cucumbers. Can't substitute.

I think the idea is to take big band music translate it to the drum corps musical idiom.

But I could be wrong.

[garfield]

Yeah...enjoy the sax parts. Oh, they won't be there. And enjoy the trombones...ooops...not there either.

You'll never get me convinced that a drum corps on a football field, no matter how good is an adequate substitute for a solid 27 member jazz band performing the same chart.

Apples and cucumbers. Can't substitute.

Isn't this is the case with just about every kind of music? Classical, on the football field? Really? How about Rock and Roll? Really? Petrouchka? Are you serious?

I don't think the impediments to interpreting jazz or swing is any more difficult than these. It's all in the teaching, IMO.

Edited September 13, 2010 by garfield