DR Big Band Feat. Mike Stern Chromazone (2008)

Sony Legacy's The Classic Big Band Christmas Album features soaring big band orchestral renditions of all your holiday favorites including "Winter Wonderland," "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!," "Jingle Bells," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" and "Auld Lang Syne" as performed by music luminaries like Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Glenn Miller, Spike Jones, Sammy Kaye and Woody Herman.

The idea of a big band in jazz is all-encompassing, representing completeness, fullness and instrumental articulation. In the mass collective imagination, when one thinks of jazz, a big orchestra immediately springs to mind, where the doors of rhythm and melody open wide, while harmonies run fast in swing time. The big band is the most traditional jazz formula, but it is also the most difficult: the musicians must be well disposed to choral and synergetic playing without attempting to overpower their sodalists, the solo parts are short and well distributed, while the improvisational fugues are contingent and controlled.

The Federal Jazz Orchestra, abbreviated and affectionately named BuJazzO by many, pays tribute to the legendary Clarke-Boland Big Band on its new album. The legendary international ensemble existed from 1961 to 1972 in Cologne and was led by American drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist, composer and arranger Francy Boland.

The Big Band of the Bundeswehr, led by band leader Timor Oliver Chadik, is one of the most unusual show and entertainment orchestras in Germany. The musicians from North Rhine-Westphalia present themselves both as a modern-sounding calling card for the Federal Republic of Germany and as top-class musical ambassadors. Uniformity has no place in the music of the Bundeswehr Big Band. All instrumentalists are hand-picked, first-class soloists in their fields and graduates of the most renowned art academies for modern light music.

Sheffield Lab Recordings is pleased to present the reissue of a historic recording: "The Harry James Sessions". Consisting of three albums originally recorded direct-to-disc by Sheffield in 1976 and 1979, and now spectacularly re-mastered by Seth Winner from analog disc originals, this program of music from the height of the swing era is a vital representation of one of the great big bands of the 20th century.

Road Time was the first live concert recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. The recording was made at three concerts in Tōkyō and Ōsaka, during a 1976 Japan tour and the double album received a 1977 Grammy nomination in the "Best Jazz Performance - Big Band" category.

"En Rymd av Färg" is well-written and ditto arranged jazz music in the larger format with nice themes and sounds, fantastic performances and a voice "to die for". The songs were written with the big band members in mind. It is noticeable in the end result which is really good, modern big band music with sterling solos by, among others, Alberto Pinton on baritone saxophone, Christer Olofsson on trombone, magnificent Stefan Wingefors on piano and not least Karolina's sharpened soprano saxophone. More of this in the future thanks!" (Andreas Backelund LIRA)

Swedish saxophonist, composer and arranger Helge Albin has led the Tolvan Big Band since 1979. Albin turned this ambitious, up-to-date big band, located in Malmö in southern Sweden, into a musical institution with an international reputation. They have collaborated with notable American musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker, British composer Mike Westbrook and Danish saxophonist Lars Møller; the band even dedicated one of its programs to new arrangements of the John Lennon songbook.

Commemorating the 45th Anniversary of Mixer's Lab! Fifth in the Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band "BIG BAND SOUND" series produced by Mixer's Lab! 10 songs selected from Jazz and Latin masterpieces of the past! The famous performances by the Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band were recorded, mixed and produced by recording engineer Eiji Uchinuma (Chairman of Mixer's Lab and Honorary Chairman of the Music Studio Association of Japan), and recorded in high sound quality using the most advanced recording technology!