Playing the saxophone How important is it to blend in a section?

[cappers]

There was a 'Big Band' group in my town but it didn't restart after the pandemic.
Before I took up the sax I often walked the dog past the practice hall and it sounded so good, I just love that horns en masse sound.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S1I_ien6A&list=PL9FE671118F78E7A6&index=1

 

[ghostler]

I think you owe it to yourself to check out the WDR Big Band on YouTube. There’s an also group in Texas called the Rebel Jazz Alliance that’s quite good, and the New London Big Band (in Connecticut) has Wayne Bergeron playing lead. They recently resurrected a bunch of previously unknown Thad Jones charts, written for Harry James, that were never recorded.

Further, the 8-bit big band in New York has the cream of the crop of NYC studio players. The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra has a very old-school aesthetic. Talk about blend, those folks really take it to the next level. Steven Feifke doesn’t post too many videos, nor does Christian McBride or John Clayton, but these guys are huge proponents of the big band sound,, and their bands are smokin’ hot.

The music is there to check out if you make the effort. We won’t ever return to the heyday of the 1940’s and ‘50’s, but there are folks seriously dedicated to keeping that sound alive.

Thank you for the input. I said "THERE ARE NOT MANY". What I am referring to is the depth and level that the earlier bands went to, to perfect blending with all doing the same vibrato, attacks, decays, etc.

 

[skeller047]

Thank you for the input. I said "THERE ARE NOT MANY". What I am referring to is the depth and level that the earlier bands went to, to perfect blending with all doing the same vibrato, attacks, decays, etc.

Yeah, I get it. The music business has changed. I was myself what I call a "blue collar musician", a working stiff who made my living playing in an "orchestra", a big band with strings, really, backing up singers, dancers and comedians nightly. But that is gone now. There are still occasional gigs like that, but not enough to pay rent and keep food on the table. I changed careers, I had to support my family. I recently visited many of my old colleagues and friends (in Reno and Lake Tahoe NV), and they all have had other careers too.

That said, the bands you mentioned were exceptional in many ways; both Basie and Duke Ellington kept their sound alive long after their heyday, precisely because so many people loved their music. The "Count Basie Band" is still touring. There are all the bands that I and others have mentioned, plus more. The sound will live on, and continue to grow. It's wonderful music, and people will continue to play it and listen to it.

But you are right, it's not the same - it's not enough to keep bread and butter guys, like me, alive. Living with the music night after night changes how the band plays, for the better. The life, that great life, on the road, backing great (and not-so-great) acts in a casino, living inside that wonderful roar, nothing is like it, but that life is gone. I miss it.