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big band
Sign in to saveAlso known as big jazz band, dance band, dance orchestra, jazz band, jazz orchestra, stage band
type of music ensemble associated with jazz and Swing Era music
Key facts
- Stylistic origins
- Jazz blues American marches classical various rhythmic social dances
- Cultural origins
- 1910s
- Derivative forms
- Swing progressive jazz Kansas City jazz easy listening space age pop traditional pop lounge
via Wikipedia infobox
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The United States Navy Band Northwest Big Band plays at a concert held in Oak Harbor High School. A big band (historically referred to as jazz orchestra) is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing the Lindy Hop. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “big band” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.