Luscher

"""The sound of the saxophones - a sweet, dry and often insipid yellow when only four were used - transformed into a woody umber when the baritone later dropped in. The impact of the three trombones in harmony was majestic. Four trumpets could take on the sound of flames yet be dampened to a citric, distant loneliness by Harmon mutes. Combined, these elements made up the sound of a big band." This is how Gene Lees - singer, critic, author and editor of Down Beat - described the big band in his essay, "Pavilion in the Rain": his farewell to the golden era in which jazz, swing and thousands of big bands the original candidates of pop in music history shaped an era of two decades until around 1948.