List of experimental big bands
Encyclopedia
A
- Aardvark Jazz OrchestraAardvark Jazz OrchestraAardvark Jazz Orchestra is an eclectic big band founded in 1973 by bandleader and trumpeter Mark Harvey. The orchestra plays music from across the jazz tradition with specialties in Ellingtonia and the original postmodern compositions of music director Mark Harvey...
- Muhal Richard Abrams OrchestraMuhal Richard AbramsMuhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...
- Neil ArdleyNeil ArdleyNeil Richard Ardley was a prominent English jazz pianist and composer, who also made a name as the author of more than 100 popular books on science and technology, and on music.-Brief biography:...
's Kaleidoscope of Rainbows - Darcy James ArgueDarcy James ArgueDarcy James Argue is a Canadian jazz composer and bandleader.-Biography:Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Argue came to the United States in 2000 to study composition at the New England Conservatory...
's Secret Society
B
- Berlin Contemporary Jazz OrchestraBerlin Contemporary Jazz OrchestraThe Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra is a large German jazz ensemble led by Alexander von Schlippenbach. The orchestra performs orchestral jazz and experimental big band music and has included in its ranks such musicians as Misha Mengelberg and Kenny Wheeler...
- Anthony BraxtonAnthony BraxtonAnthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
's Creative Orchestra Music - Willem Breuker Kollektief
- Brussels Jazz OrchestraBrussels Jazz OrchestraBrussels Jazz Orchestra is a Belgian jazz big band founded in 1993 by saxophonist and composer Frank Vaganée. They recorded their first CD in 1997...
G
- Michael Gibbs OrchestraMichael Gibbs (jazz composer)Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist....
- George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band
- Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
- Globe Unity OrchestraGlobe Unity OrchestraThe Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble.Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival...
- The Vinny GoliaVinny GoliaVinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation....
Large Ensemble - Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat BandGordon Goodwin's Big Phat BandGordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, or simply The Big Phat Band, is an 18-piece jazz ensemble based in California and led by Gordon Goodwin. Goodwin composes most, and arranges all, of the group's performance pieces, as well as playing piano and occasionally tenor saxophone...
J
- The Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra
- Jazz Composer's OrchestraJazz Composer's OrchestraJazz Composer's Orchestra was an American jazz group founded in 1965, to further avant-garde jazz in New York. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style....
(aka Jazz Composer's Orchestra of America)
K
- Jeff Kaiser OckodektetJeff KaiserJeffrey Patrick Kaiser is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched parts of seven seasons in the majors for five different teams between and . During those seasons, he never pitched more than 15 games, nor more than 16.2 innings at the major league level. He finished his career with an...
- Stan Kenton and the Innovations OrchestraStan KentonStanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
L
- Liberation Music OrchestraLiberation Music OrchestraLiberation Music Orchestra is a jazz album by Charlie Haden, released in 1969 . It was Haden's first album as leader.The inspiration for the album came when Haden heard songs from the Spanish Civil War...
- London Jazz Composers Orchestra
- Loose TubesLoose TubesLoose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
M
- Tina MarshTina MarshTina Marsh was a jazz vocalist and composer based in Austin, Texas. Marsh was the creative director of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra , a large jazz ensemble which she founded in 1980. In 2000, the Austin Chronicle inducted Marsh into its Texas Music Hall of Fame...
and the Creative Opportunity Orchestra - Microscopic Septet
- Mingus Big BandMingus Big BandThe Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus and represented by Tree Lawn Artists, Inc.. In addition to its weekly Monday night appearance at the Jazz Standard in New York City,...
- David Murray Big BandDavid Murray Big BandDavid Murray Big Band conducted by Lawrence "Butch" Morris is an album by David Murray released on the DIW/Columbia label. It is the third album to feature his Big Band and was released in 1991 featuring performances by Murray, Hugh Ragin, Graham Haynes, Rasul Siddik, James Zollar, Craig Harris,...
R
- Sun Ra and his ArkestraSun RaSun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Scott RosenbergScott RosenbergScott Rosenberg is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer.- Biography :Born in Needham, Massachusetts in 1963, Rosenberg received a Bachelor's Degree from Boston University. He earned his MFA from UCLA...
- George Russell and the Living Time Orchestra
S
- Sam Rivers and the Rivbea All-Star Orchestra
- Scratch OrchestraScratch OrchestraThe Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton....
- The SeatbeltsThe Seatbeltswas a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno.-Band history:The name of the band, according to the fictional description given in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, derives from how the performers wear seatbelts to be safe while they play hardcore jam sessions.The band...
- Shibusashirazu OrchestraShibusashirazu Orchestra, often lengthened to Shibusashirazu Orchestra, is a popular Japanese free jazz orchestra. The group was formed in 1989 by bassist Daisuke Fuwa and since then many of Japan's best free jazz musicians, Butoh dancers and other performance artists have passed through the orchestra.The majority of the...
- Maria Schneider Orchestra