Big Band of the Week

The people we call senior citizens used to sometimes be known as golden agers; therefore, the name of this all-senior-citizen big band is The Goldenaires. The band is over thirty years old and based in Columbia. When reed man Al Caldwell began directing the band in 2010 they had mostly one-page charts, some with only a few lines of music. | Read more>> Read More

It’s a wonder Frosty the Snowman can survive the smoking-hot playing of the Ken Ebo Jazz Orchestra. “Frosty the Snowman,” the venerable Christmas tune first recorded by Gene Autry in 1950, is one of several holiday favorites performed by Ebo’s swinging 28-piece ensemble at its annual concerts in support of the U.S. | Read more>> Read More

Charles Funn, director of the Dunbar Alumni Jazz Band (DAJB), does not remember when the band started, but he remembers how it started. Several alumni of Baltimore City’s Dunbar High School had gone off to colleges where the jazz big bands’ music was less satisfying than what they had played under Funn’s direction at Dunbar. | Read more>> Read More

Band leader Don Arnold possesses a wry sense of humor. When I mentioned the large number of big bands in the Baltimore area—thirty-three—he commented, “No wonder there’s no work.” Arnold, 91, remembers when big band work was plentiful around Baltimore, at the Surf Club on Route 40 and The Dutch Mill on Harford Road. | Read more>> Read More

Dr. Phill is drummer, band leader and music educator Phill Butts. He explains that his motivation for starting this band in 2011 was to fill the void left by his retirement, after directing big bands at Arundel High School for 40 years. | Read more>> Read More