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<title>Top Big Band Artists on Rhapsody Online</title>
<dateCreated>Wed Dec 30 15:35:50 PST 2009</dateCreated>
<dateModified>Wed Dec 30 15:35:50 PST 2009</dateModified>
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<outline type="include" text="Glenn Miller" description="Glenn Miller put a whole nation &quot;In the Mood.&quot; Miller led the most successful big band of the Swing era -- not a bad accomplishment considering that a strong sense of swing was the only thing this trombonist lacked. Thankfully, Miller corralled a wonderful group of musicians and arrangers and had hit after deserving hit during the War years. The era of Bobby Soxers and rationing may be over but &quot;Moonlight Serenade,&quot; &quot;Pennsylvania 6-5000,&quot; and the evergreen &quot;In the Mood&quot; have been embraced by the new generation of Lindy Hoppers. The man himself died when his plane was shot down over the English Channel, but his band continues in one form or another to this day. Critics still debate whether Miller was a jazz musician or not, but nobody ever questions how good he was at what he did.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/glenn-miller/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Duke Ellington" description="The contributions Edward Kennedy &quot;Duke&quot; Ellington has made to American music cannot be overstated. Ellington led an earthshaking big band with musicians that helped shape jazz and his charts influenced countless arrangers. He wrote dozens of what are now considered standards while he continued to explore and experiment with longer suites. Ellington could produce a great swing song, then a ballad, and then follow it up with an avant-garde orchestral piece -- all of equal quality. On his own, Ellington was a powerhouse who used members of his orchestra like a painter uses colors and optimized the talents and sounds of each musician. When Billy Strayhorn joined him as a co-arranger, songwriter and piano player, their combined talents led the orchestra to even greater heights. When Duke Ellington was asked to define jazz he replied, &quot;there are only two kinds of music, good and bad.&quot; The Duke just may have created more &quot;good&quot; music than anyone in history.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/duke-ellington/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Quincy Jones" description="Many today just know Quincy Jones as a recording industry powerhouse, but in the 1950s and '60s he was an in-demand jazz arranger as well as the man who blazed a path for future African Americans in the movie studios and record companies. Jones grew up in Seattle and learned how to read music from the blind (!) Ray Charles as a teen. He went on to play trumpet and write arrangements for the orchestras of Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Ray Charles. In 1957, French record company Barclay records snatched him up as an executive and from there he went on to the Mercury label. At the same time, he recorded with the awesome Quincy Jones Big Band. It contained the finest musicians and combined the streamlined swing of Count Basie with the sounds of Hard Bop. Jones was all over the place during this period, working with many artists and singers such as Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra. Jones started working on film and television soundtracks to great success. In the '70s he got funky (like everybody else) and slowly withdrew to the business side of music. But every once in a while, he comes back out. Today, his work shows the common threads found in jazz, Funk, pop, and rap.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/quincy-jones/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Benny Goodman" description="OK, Benny Goodman looked like a nerdy accountant. So what? Listen to his music...he always swung like Jayne Mansfield in capri pants. Goodman's cutting-edge clarinet chops were so strong that they propelled him to stardom in 1935 and officially launched the swing scene in popular culture. An all around tough cookie (and reputed to be difficult to work with), Goodman nevertheless hired interracial groups, working with the finest musicians (Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Charlie Christian), and blazed a trail for big bands and small jazz outfits through his various incarnations. In the late '40s, he incorporated Bop into his sound and continued to grow, working with such modernists as Herbie Hancock. Swing revivalists take note: Goodman makes Brian Setzer sound like Guy Lombardo.
- Nick Dedina" category="Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/benny-goodman/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Count Basie" description="Setting the stage with just a 'plunk' or two from his piano, Count Basie's big band in the '30s swung harder than any other, giving the world such talents as Lester Young, Buck Clayton and &quot;Sweets&quot; Edison. That trio, along with the Count himself, created a freewheeling beast featuring sizzling improvs and solos. Basie's 'Testament' bands of the '50s operated like soulful, well-oiled machines, and were reliant on arrangers like Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones and Frank Foster. The vocal platform was perfectly suited to Basie's '50s sound -- he had great success with superstar singers Joe Williams, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald.
- Nick Dedina" category="Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/count-basie/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Tommy Dorsey" description="During the Swing era, there were jazz bands, dance bands, and sweet bands: Dorsey had the finest, most sugarcoated dance band that nevertheless swung like Roger Maris. They had almost 200 hit singles between 1935 and 1953. As a trombonist, Dorsey had amazing breath control that was studied by jazz musicians as well as by his star singer, the young Frank Sinatra. Aside from the Voice, Dorsey employed Sy Oliver, Buddy Rich, and Jo Stafford in his band during the early '40s, each of whom ultimately went out and struck it big in his or her own right.
- Nick Dedina" category="Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/tommy-dorsey/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Charles Mingus" description="Bassist, composer, pianist, bandleader, and poet, Charles Mingus was a creative whirlwind. He began his career as a Bop and Cool Jazz player in New York City, before forming the Jazz Composer's Workshop in 1952. In 1955, Mingus started his own group, known as the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop. A year later, Mingus enlisted drummer Dannie Richmond, who was to become his lifelong partner in rhythm. And thus began Mingus's creative explosion. He wrote a series of tunes that featured Gospel-inflected shouts, raucous blues, and Ellington-esque arrangements, showcased on the albums &lt;I&gt;Blues and Roots&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Mingus Ah Um&lt;/I&gt;, and &lt;I&gt;Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus&lt;/I&gt;. He enlisted a big band and recorded a masterpiece of modern music, &lt;I&gt;The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady&lt;/I&gt;. He also toured Europe with a quintet, featuring the great Eric Dolphy. In 1977, after a short retirement and before his death, he recorded two more small combo albums, both entitled &lt;I&gt;Changes&lt;/I&gt;. A virtuoso bassist and composer, Mingus irrevocably changed the face of jazz." category="Avant Garde Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/charles-mingus/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Dizzy Gillespie" description="Everything about Dizzy Gillespie was original -- his bullfrog cheeks, his bent trumpet, his music, his soul. Along with Charlie &quot;Yardbird&quot; Parker, John Birks &quot;Dizzy&quot; Gillespie spearheaded the revolutionary Bop movement of the '40s. Both played with intense sophistication, but while Bird sax soundalikes started coming out of the woodwork, Dizzy trumpet clones were few and far between. Both giants became a Bop University of sorts, teaching others and spreading the word of the new jazz. Gillespie's unique combination of musical ideas, range, curiosity and, best of all, his joy of life could not be duplicated. Indeed, much like his forebear Louis Armstrong, Diz was a showman and an entertainer who captivated a wide audience. Gillespie's big bands and small groups brought Bop, Bossa Nova, and Afro-Cuban rhythms to the world. Gillespie's influence looms long and large over the course of Jazz history.
- Nick Dedina" category="Bop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/dizzy-gillespie/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Gerry Mulligan" description="With his white sidewalls crewcut and short-sleeved shirts, Gerry Mulligan was a 50s icon. Mulligan's pianoless quartet with Chet Baker caused an immediate sensation in 1952 and put West Coast Jazz on the map. Mulligan had already been working on his trademark relaxed, Cool Jazz sound with his arrangements for Claude Thornhill and Miles Davis. Besides his writing skills, Mulligan's mastery of the baritone sax had much to do with his success. In most hands, the deep, throaty instrument can sound like a baby tuba, but Mulligan treated the beast like the kind of tenor sax that Ben Webster played. He employed that fluid style with his equally influential quartets, tentets, and big bands. He died in 1996, still at the height of his powers, after complications from minor knee surgery (he was an avid runner). Undeniably, one of the true giants of jazz.
- Nick Dedina" category="Cool/West Coast Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/gerry-mulligan/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Artie Shaw" description="Artie Shaw is easily one of the finest jazz clarinetists of all time, with a smooth and swinging style all his own. Shaw had great success beginning in the late 30's and continuing into the 40's, when he was a major star respected by teenagers and jazz fans alike. Shaw always hired the best musicians -- Buddy Rich, Billy Butterfield and Zoot Sims, for example -- and even led one of the finest mainstream Bop bands around during the mid-50s. Then at the peak of creativity Shaw stopped making music, greatly saddening Benny Goodman, his equally hotheaded clarinet rival. Throughout his career he had made a periodic habit of quitting music (and marrying movie stars such as Lana Turner and Ava Gardner) so people were sure Shaw would be back when he hung up his horn for good in 1955. But such a sudden departure from the scene certainly did nothing to lessen his future legend and Ken Burns' jazz series proved that the man is still as honest and outspoken as ever.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/artie-shaw/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Harry James" description="At the tender age of twenty-one, Harry James and his thundering trumpet sound rose to fame with Benny Goodman. James started his own band in 1939 and, although he endured a period of hardship, ultimately caught fire by sweetening his hard swinging style; soon after, he became the preeminent bandleader of the '40s. James always employed top musicians (Buddy Rich, &quot;Stuff&quot; Smith) and vocalists (Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest), and became a Hollywood presence after marrying the leggy actress Betty Grable. As big bands were dropping left and right in the '50s, James wisely chose to toughen his sound, a move which ensured additional success in the age of Bop. Through career ups and downs he remained a great horn player.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/harry-james/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Woody Herman" description="If you see Woody Herman's toothy grin on a CD cover, do yourself a favor and snatch it up. Herman's big band combination of Swing and Bop sounds just as good today as it did when his various ÃÂHerdsÃÂ originally stampeded in the '40s. Herman played clarinet and saxophone and sang in a charming, bluesy voice. He assembled crackerjack bands that featured the likes of Ben Webster, Red Norvo, Stan Getz and Shorty Rogers. Count Basie took arranger Neil Hefti from Herman and invented his ÃÂAtomic sound.ÃÂ Ray Charles loved Herman's group so much, he used another of Herman's arrangers, Ralph Burns, to launch his own big band. Herman, adored by musicians as a true gentleman, had a tragic end. A crooked business manager was stealing from him, and had not been paying taxes for the entire band over a period of many years. Herman became a slave to the IRS and was forced to tour and play until he died in 1987.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/woody-herman/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Nelson Riddle" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/nelson-riddle/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Stan Kenton" description="Stan Kenton led one of the most successful big bands from the end of the Swing era through the counterculture revolution of the 1960s. Kenton's vision was unique and he often favored bombast and experimentation over the pulse of Swing. Oddly, the musicians he hired were the swingin'est around. Art Pepper, Anita O'Day, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Maynard Ferguson, June Christy and countless others all became stars with Kenton and went on to successful solo careers. If pretension often got the best of him, much of Kenton's music was great. Songs like &quot;23 Degrees North - 82 Degrees West,&quot; -- which incorporated Latin rhythms without conga drums -- are still amazingly vital, while such albums as &lt;I&gt;City of Glass&lt;/I&gt; remain cutting edge Third Stream works. Kenton's reputation suffered at the hands of latter day critics who complained that his music wasn't &quot;black&quot; enough. Today, people are waking up to the fact that his music was special because it sounded like no one else's.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/stan-kenton/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Dave Pell" description="Saxophonist Dave Pell led one of the coolest of the West Coast Cool bands. His light, floating octet featured superior musicians such as Zoot Sims, Paul Smith and Benny Carter playing the charts of Shorty Rogers, Marty Paich and Bill Holman. His own saxophone style was appealing, but when L.A. started treating jazz like the silent screen starlet of &lt;i&gt;Sunset Boulevard&lt;/i&gt;, Pell joined the ranks of sunglass-sporting rock producers. He returned to jazz in the late '70s, balancing bop and cool with the big band swing he started with.
- Nick Dedina" category="Cool/West Coast Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/dave-pell/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Don Byas" description="Don Byas was one of the pioneers of Swing saxophone. His 1940s performances with Count Basie rival those of Coleman Hawkins' but after he moved to France in the late '40s Byas was largely forgotten by the American public. But Byas made a fine living in Europe and visiting artists Stan Getz and Art Blakey were lining up to play with him. Like Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges he never updated his style after the Bebop explosion because he never had to -- his recordings from the late '60s are as sublime as those made decades earlier.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/don-byas/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Maynard Ferguson" description="Maynard Ferguson's amazing high-register trumpet work made him a star with the Stan Kenton Orchestra at the dawn of the 1950s, and his elastic range and boundless energy have kept him up there for almost fifty years. Though he kills on Big Band and Bop flag wavers, Ferguson can be a downright sensitive player when not wowing the crowd with (admittedly impressive) trumpet gymnastics.
- Nick Dedina" category="Crossover Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/maynard-ferguson/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Lionel Hampton" description="Lionel Hampton is one of the true giants of American music. He was an innovator on the vibes, coming to prominence in the 1930s in Benny Goodman's band before forming his own orchestra and scoring a massive hit in 1942 with &quot;Flying Home.&quot; Like Louis Armstrong, he was a wonderful entertainer as well as a musician, and this has kept him in the public's hearts long after most jazz artists revert to cult status. Even though he had Swing in his blood, the hard-driving Hampton worked well with Bop and Cool artists, and he had a hand in forging R&amp;B. His good humor pours out of his playing and his exuberant vocal style.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/lionel-hampton/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Billy May" description="When Sinatra, Nat Cole, or Ella wanted the swinging-est Big Band charts around, they turned to Billy May -- a major arranger of the swing and pop eras known for coining the much copied &quot;slurping sax&quot; sound. Besides leading his own band, he worked for Charlie Barnet and Les Brown. May was famous for how fast he worked and he often cranked out superior big band charts moments before a recording session began.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/billy-may/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="J.J. Johnson" description="J.J. Johnson became a star by being the first slide trombonist to bring Bop innovations to his unwieldy instrument. He played with the Benny Carter and Count Basie bands during the 1940s, but developed a lightning-quick style while working with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He led many of his own groups, the most successful of which was a unique partnership with Kai Winding, his fellow trombonist and annual competitor for the top spot in year-end jazz polls. Johnson still records prolifically and is such a skilled arranger -- doing charts for many albums and films on which he does not play -- that even if he never mastered the trombone, he would still be a major figure in jazz history.
- Nick Dedina" category="Bebop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jj-johnson/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Benny Carter" description="The fact that Benny Carter has played a sublime alto saxophone (and sometimes trumpet, piano, and clarinet) since the 1920s has obscured his other accomplishments. Carter has written great standards (When Lights are Low among countless others), arranged for bands and singers (like Peggy Lee); led groups that contained such peers as Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, and Miles Davis; and has written arrangements for feature films since the '40s. But Carter does indeed play a beautiful saxophone, and along with Johnny Hodges, he was considered the role model on the alto sax. Once Charlie Parker came along, Carter's style (fluid, pure, and romantic) still seemed current. Indeed, every revolution in jazz, from Bop to Cool to Soul Jazz has had a place for him. Benny Carter performed, wrote and recorded well into his nineties, finally passing over to the next world in 2003
- Nick Dedina" category="Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/benny-carter/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Les Brown" description="A mainstay of the Swing scene, Les Brown led a dance band that was highly successful and had strong jazz musicians on its roster. Brown's Band of Renown enjoyed even more popularity when a talented young canary named Doris Day came on board in the mid-Â40s. He kept his band together well into the rock era by backing up Bob Hope. Ken Burns brought Brown's &quot;Joltin' Joe Dimaggio&quot; out of mothballs for his baseball documentary, and along with Simon and Garfunkel's &quot;Mrs. Robinson,&quot; the song was later played on radios and televisions to eulogize the Yankee Clipper when he passed away in March 1999.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/les-brown/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jimmy Dorsey" description="Clarinetist Jimmy Dorsey swung harder than -- and often at -- his brother Tommy. Alone, he led his band through every style from Dixieland to Bop.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jimmy-dorsey/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Buddy Rich" description="Buddy Rich, a child prodigy, was a marvel on the drums. Rich was propelled to stardom in the Swing era while playing with the Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey big bands -- where he and Sinatra sometimes came to blows on stage -- before backing just about every Swing and Bop musician of the 1950s. Rich then went on to beat the rock 'n' roll odds by fronting a popular big band from the late '60s until his death in 1987. He even hosted an episode of &lt;i&gt;The Muppet Show&lt;/i&gt;.
- Nick Dedina" category="Modern Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/buddy-rich/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Art Farmer" description="Look on the back of any jazz record from the '50s onward and the odds are pretty good that Art Farmer is on it. In 1945, Farmer blazed a trail the minute he set foot in Los Angeles: he improvised like a demon yet still managed to be melodic on trumpet and flugelhorn. Farmer's playing enlivened the bands of Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, and Quincy Jones. In New York, he worked with Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, and Benny Golsen, among countless others. He led his own groups from the early '60s on and released dozens of superb solo albums, but continued to drop in on friends' sessions. His sound was so appealing that even during the dark '70s, he had major label deals. What was his secret? Whatever it was, Farmer carried it to the grave in 1999 but we can still search for the answers in his music.
- Nick Dedina" category="Hard Bop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/art-farmer/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Fletcher Henderson" description="The easiest way to discover how Traditional Jazz turned into Swing is to listen to the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. Acres of monumental musicians played with Henderson's band -- Louis Armstrong, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge -- and together they helped change popular music. Henderson's real strength lay in his arrangements (and those of equals such as Benny Carter), which balanced a propulsive rhythmic foundation with complex flourishes and plenty of room for the band to move around in. Henderson had the hottest act on the scene until Duke Ellington appeared in the late 1920s, but Henderson could never keep a group together like the Duke, and he rarely crossed over to white America until he joined Benny Goodman as an arranger in the mid-1930s. After Henderson's stroke in 1950, Goodman repaid his debt to his often overlooked contributor by raising money for his care during the last five years of his life. If you ever need a jolt of pure joy, listen to Henderson's recordings from the '30s, when his band distilled happiness into music.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/fletcher-henderson/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Russ Morgan" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/russ-morgan/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Red Norvo" description="Red Norvo made both xylophone and vibes legitimate jazz instruments, helped create the blueprint for jazz vocal arrangements, laid the foundation for Cool jazz, and remained vital throughout the Swing, Bop, and Cool movements. Duke Ellington adored Norvo's big band, and his trio work is stunning (he talked Charles Mingus into leaving the post office and returning to jazz for it!). Norvo's work was always particularly well-suited for vocalists, and his recordings with Mildred Bailey (his first wife), Mel Torme, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra are all standouts.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/red-norvo/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Gene Krupa" description="Drummer Gene Krupa became a star playing behind Benny Goodman at the start of the Swing era. He went on to form his own hard-swinging band and had a string of hits during World War II. The handsome tub-thumper became a household name by introducing the drum solo to popular music (though it would be unkind to blame him for the percussive excesses of the rock era) and he became a mainstay on records, radio and film -- he even had a key part in the classic screwball comedy, &lt;i&gt;Ball of Fire&lt;/i&gt;. Krupa entered the '50s by hiring Bop and Cool jazz modernists like Gerry Mulligan, and then released a string of solid albums on Verve long after many Swing era bandleaders were made obsolete. Krupa, who set the stage for such master percussionists as Shelly Manne, Max Roach, and Buddy Rich, was portrayed by pint-sized rebel Sal Mineo in a Hollywood blockbuster about his troubled life.
- Nick Dedina" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/gene-krupa/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Matthew Herbert" description="London's Matthew Herbert is an anomaly in electronic music: while he got his start crafting Chicago-inspired house tracks for the more discerning ravers of the '90s, the bulk of his career has been defined by his conceptual bent and political activism. Herbert's music was always unconventional, but his move away from the dance-floor status quo came with his Personal Contract for the Composition of Music, a manifesto dictating the hows and whys behind his use of samplers and synthesizers. At heart an ethical approach in defiance of the increasing ease of electronic-music production, the P.C.C.O.M. led Herbert in a more activist direction as he began to move from the sounds of the personal (a beating heart or clattering toothbrush) to the political (an oil tank being filled, or a Big Mac thrown against a wall). Still, deep house and downtempo fans won't be thrown off by the intimacy of albums like &lt;I&gt;Around the House&lt;/I&gt; or &lt;I&gt;Bodily Functions&lt;/I&gt;. In addition to the side projects Doctor Rockit and Radioboy, Herbert also conducts the Herbert Big Band Orchestra, a modern-day take on the classic big bands of the '30s and '40s.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Electronica/Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/matthew-herbert-3/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Doc Severinsen" description="Doc Severinson will forever be associated with Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show Band. A hot, swingin' trumpet player who hd stints with Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Charlie Barnet, Severinson proved to be a good-natured showman on &lt;i&gt;The Tonight Show&lt;/i&gt;. His older recordings are of more interest to Big Band jazz fans than his latest, easier listening, releases.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/doc-severinsen/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Herman Kenin" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/herman-kenin/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Larry Clinton" description="" category="Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/larry-clinton/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Freddy Gardner" description="" category="Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/freddy-gardner/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Oliver Nelson" description="Oliver Nelson was such a good saxophone player that he could shine with the mainstream Quincy Jones Orchestra or with the far-out Eric Dolphy. However, his exceptional arranging and composing skills eventually pushed his playing to the sidelines. Nelson arranged big band and string sessions for the likes of Nancy Wilson, Cal Tjader, Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery. &lt;i&gt;The Blues and the Abstract Truth&lt;/I&gt;, released under his own name, features his sax with such cohorts as Dolphy and Bill Evans. This classic contains his best known song, &quot;Stolen Moments,&quot; and is a sophisticated celebration of the blues. By the end of the '60s, Nelson had retreated to the movie and television studios. He died young in 1975.
- Nick Dedina" category="Post Bop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/oliver-nelson/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jimmie Lunceford" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jimmie-lunceford/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Shorty Rogers" description="Shorty Rogers was an agile trumpet player with a light and always swinging style, but his largest contributions to jazz came from his wondrous arranging and composing abilities. The Giants, his popular West Coast ensemble, kept fluctuating from a small group to a mid-sized outfit to a full big band, and his music was featured in such quintessential 1950s films as &lt;I&gt;The Wild Ones&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;The Man With the Golden Arm&lt;/I&gt;. He had a rare instrumental hit single in 1962 with &quot;Martians, Go Home&quot; but by the middle of that decade, Rogers had abandoned jazz for full-time studio and movie work. In 1983 he returned to his first love, playing and recording regularly until his death in 1994.
- Nick Dedina" category="Cool/West Coast Jazz" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/shorty-rogers/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Freddy Martin" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/freddy-martin/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Glenn Miller and His Orchestra" description="Glenn Miller put a whole nation &quot;In the Mood.&quot; He led the most successful big band of the Swing era -- not a bad accomplishment, considering that a strong sense of swing was the only thing this trombonist lacked. He corralled a wonderful group of musicians and arrangers and had hit after hit during the War years; and while the era of bobby soxers and rationing may be over, &quot;Moonlight Serenade,&quot; &quot;Pennsylvania 6-5000,&quot; and the evergreen &quot;In the Mood&quot; have been embraced by the new generation of lindy hoppers. Miller died when his plane was shot down over the English Channel, but his band continues in one form or another to this day. Critics still debate whether Miller was a jazz musician or not, but few ever questions how good he was.
- Nick Dedina" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/glenn-miller-and-his-orchestra/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Earl &quot;Fatha&quot; Hines" description="Hines was a key figure in the transition from Swing to Bebop -- his offbeat left-hand jabs brought heavy syncopation to his work in Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, and his octave melodies influenced scores of musicians that followed. An important part of Hines' innovation was his acceptance of fresh perceptions in his band -- while others may have felt they were too modern, Hines welcomed Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's new ideas. In addition, fresh-sounding Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine were both featured vocalists in his group at various points. From Big Band to Dixieland ensembles, Hines always played with an effervescent joy, infecting his bands and his piano playing with his unique rhythmic intensity and stylistic individuality.
- Jessy Terry" category="Jazz Piano" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/earl-fatha-hines/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bob Brookmeyer" description="A valve trombonist and ace arranger, Bob Brookmeyer's Cool, but warm, tone has been a major part of the jazz scene for almost fifty years. After getting tapped by Stan Getz in 1953, he went on to Jimmy Giuffre's unique chamber jazz trio with Jim Hall, and then started his long association with Gerry Mulligan. Brookmeyer's solo records from this period are real finds, but most people have heard his complex, melodic work with Mulligan, Chet Baker, and on two excellent duet albums with Bill Evans. Like so many of these collaborators, his style meshed perfectly with 1960s Bossa Nova, and Brookmeyer recorded an engaging collaboration with Lalo Schifrin called &lt;I&gt;Samba Para Dos&lt;/I&gt; that will please serious jazz and Lounge fans alike. Brookmeyer has become another jazz treasure that America has lost to Europe, but luckily his big band and small group recordings are widely available. The only constant you will find in his diverse body of work is excellence.
- Nick Dedina" category="Cool" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bob-brookmeyer/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Orchestra" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-orchestra/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Si Zentner &amp; Orchestra" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/si-zentner-orchestra/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Gil Evans" description="Canadian-born, but raised in California's agricultural Central Valley, Gil Evans' tonal colors are unique with an eerie, disquieting quality. His laid-back charts for Claude Thornhill in the '40s helped lay the foundation for Cool jazz, and his apartment was a meeting place for like-minded moderns such as Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, and John Lewis. They all got together on the classic &lt;I&gt;Birth of the Cool&lt;/I&gt; LP. That Miles Davis album was a popular bust but was hugely influential and Evans went on to record three stunning albums with Davis in the late '50s and he started recording his own big band throughout this period. His solo albums and collaborations with Kenny Burrell and Astrud Gilberto in the '60s are equally impressive and carry his unmistakable sound. Evans got into electronics and continued experimenting in the '70s, but most of this later work lacks focus (excluding his surprisingly good tribute to Jimi Hendrix in '74).
- Nick Dedina" category="Modern Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/gil-evans/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Carla Bley" description="" category="Modern Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/carla-bley/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Max Roach" description="Drummer Max Roach has been a vital force in shaping jazz music, for he alone bridges the Swing, Bop, and Avant Garde eras. In 1942, at the age of eighteen, he was already playing with the Duke Ellington orchestra; soon afterward, he met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and went on to forge some of the first Bebop rhythms. Roach pioneered the use of polyrhythms, or multiple interlocking rhythms with different meters that share the same pulse and thus may be played simultaneously. In 1954, Roach formed his own quintet with trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown which thrived until Brown and pianist Richie Powell were killed in a car accident. Roach has since led countless bands and worked with dozens of Post Bop and avant-garde players. He's tackled political themes in his music, led an all-percussion ensemble, and worked in multimedia with dancers and video artists. His latest combo often plays alongside a string quartet." category="Hard Bop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/max-roach/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Barney Bigard" description="One of the premier clarinet players in the history of jazz, Barney Bigard remains immortal thanks to his timeless tune &quot;Mood Indigo.&quot; Born in New Orleans, he studied with the masters before moving on to play with King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton in the 1920s. Also a tenor saxophonist, he came to prominence on clarinet while working with Duke Ellington from '27 to '42. His mellow tone, graceful finger work and smooth sustain graced countless recordings during the peak of the Swing craze, including some of his own compositions. Later, he joined the Louis Armstrong All Stars, touring worldwide from '47 to '55 (though the earlier Swing era was his most creative period). He appeared in several films, wrote the book &lt;I&gt;With Louis and the Duke&lt;/I&gt;, and ultimately must be given accolades for his contributions to jazz in its nascent period.
- Robert Leaver" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/barney-bigard/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Paul Ferguson Jazz Orchestra" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/paul-ferguson-jazz-orchestra/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bob Crosby" description="" category="Big Band" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bob-crosby/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Erskine Hawkins" description="" category="Classic Swing" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/erskine-hawkins/data.opml?rws=%2Fjazz%2Fbig-band%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
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