[maestro]

Please, enjoy this 'vanity'. Happy New Year 2002!!

[spycatcher]

Tommy Dorsey

[Beenliedto]

Basie... in Birdland between Christmas and New Years... That was a small room, and the band really filled it up... Then I got to meet the Count in Cocoa Beach at the Ramada Inn in 1965.... What a treat!!!

[maestro]

Stan Kenton
'Chase'
Buddy Rich
Glen Miller's Band
Any more ?? Comments ??

[Channel_Islands_EANx_Diver]

Easy one! Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[okie01]

Duke Ellington.

[spycatcher]

Benny Goodman with Artie Shaw

[WIMom]

I saw Lionel Hampton, I don't think that qualifies as big band, but he was still excellent.

[WIMom]

There is a local big band that played at my SIL's wedding. They played all the greats and they were wonderful. I would have loved to live during the big band era. I played in a jazz band and that was fun. It's real music.

[SlickWillard]

THE KING

[Huck]

I saw Buddy Rich and his band. They were very good.

[JoJo the Clown]

The Don Ellis Orchestra !! Maynard Ferguson's big band of the 1970's and 1980's!!

[kylaka]

I just downloaded Glenn Miller's "lost recordings" a double disc recorded less than a month before he disappeared in December 1944. Oldly enough it was recorded at Abbey Road studios of Beatles fame some 17 years later. Good stuff too.

I also plucked a 4 disc set off the web a few months back labeled only as "swing" music. It is a mixture of Goodman, Basie, Gillespie, Shaw, Gray, Herman, Miller and about 10 others. All the tracks were remixed in STEREO. It sounds like it was recorded last week. It blows me away every time I listen to it.

[Octar]

Fletcher Henderson.

Whoops, just showed my age.

[Roux]

Got to see Pete Fountain live a few times. I know he's not a big band but he's great.

If you go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans he starts out at Comanders Palace on Washington Ave. about 7:30 am with his Half-Fast Walking Club. You have to see it to believe it.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

The nearest to the real thing I've heard is Harry Connick Jr. (I'm only 44.) In this area, your only choices are country (:-/ NPR -- classic or new age :-( or rock. Sigh.

[kAcknor]

kAcknor Sez:

What 'Big' Bands have you enjoyed, 'live'??

My favorite is this guy, Rick Brunetto. He runs a 16 piece band in the Columbus Ohio area. Good tunes, good dancing, good time.

"yIQeqQo' neH, DoS yIqIp!" (Don't just aim, hit the target!)

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[Artem55]

Glenn Miller's band is my all-time favorite. Although I did get to see Doc Severinsen perform in Las Vegas about 20 years ago and he was impressive! Really a great musician.

[doctor noe]

The Penetrators
X
The Blasters
The Who
The Clash
Butthole Surfers
Meat Puppets
Circle Jerks
Fear
Black Flag
Green Day
Adolescents
Replacements
Plimsouls
Third Eye Blind
Jerry Ramey & the Shames

The list goes on and on!

[doc11355]

Was fortunate to grow up near Hershey, PA where there were Big Bands booked into the Hershey Ballroom every weekend through the summer. During '58, '58 and '60 the Bands were still touring and I was old enough to drive there and used it frequently for dates with girls I really wanted to impress.

Got to see them all... Goodman, both Dorseys, Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Ellington,, etc.

While in the Army in Germany in 1970 I talked my way past security and spent about 15 minutes talking with Stan Kenton during intermission - what a memory! The only let down was that Maynard Ferguson, my idol, wasn't touring with them at the time.

I still think they represent the apex of American music.

[Renegade]

Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Kiss, Beach Boys, and Liberty Lovin' Gun Lovin' Ted Nugent