Modern big bands

Movement · 1946 → · United States, Europe · Modern jazz (1940-1970)

After 1946, most of the swing big bands disappear; Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman and Stan Kenton ("progressive jazz") carry on. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Buddy Rich, Gil Evans, Carla Bley or Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin keep the format alive; Maria Schneider and the Vienna Art Orchestra (1977) extend it.

Where it comes from

• Swing, big bands
• Third stream

What it gave rise to or influenced

• Fusion, jazz-rock, jazz-funk
• Jazz in film and on screen

Artists

• Buddy Rich (1917–1987, drums)
• Stan Kenton (1911–1979, piano, arrangement, conductor)
• Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (big band)
• Maynard Ferguson (1928–2006, trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone)
• Vienna Art Orchestra (big band)
• Willem Breuker (1944–2010, saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet)
• Michiel Braam (1964, piano)
• New Cool Collective (big band, acid jazz, latin, afrobeat)

Tracks to start with

• Sacred Concert (sélection) — Duke Ellington (1965)
• Kogun — Toshiko Akiyoshi (1974)
• Long Yellow Road — Toshiko Akiyoshi (1975)
• Come Sunday — Duke Ellington and His Orchestra featuring Mahalia Jackson (1958)
• Sunset and the Mocking Bird — Duke Ellington (1959)
• Every Day I Have the Blues — Count Basie & Joe Williams (1955)
• Fly Me to the Moon (Sinatra-Basie) — Frank Sinatra & Count Basie (1964)
• Isfahan — Duke Ellington (1966)
• Let the Word Go Forth — Oliver Nelson (1967)
• The Quintessence — Quincy Jones (1961)
• A Child Is Born — Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (1970)
• Reflections on Gnossienne No. 1 — Vienna Art Orchestra (1984)
• Main Title / Anatomy of a Murder — Duke Ellington (1959)
• Tristano — Bik Bent Braam (Michiel Braam) (1996)
• Child in Time — Bik Bent Braam (Michiel Braam) (2000)
• Yunikon — New Cool Collective (2021)

Sources

• EN : Big band

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