#3609: Music for Big Bands

From Bjork’s sleeper hit, “It’s Oh So Quiet” from the 1990’s, to much more recent big band recordings, like that of the German-based Monika Roscher Bigband, listen to horns a-plenty in clever arrangements on this New Sounds.  Roscher is a German electric guitarist, singer, and big band leader, of an atypical big band, which sometimes incorporates more exciting, innovative possibilities that might have come from techno or punk.  Roscher says of her 18-piece band, “We’re experimental, and a bit weird. It can be a shock, if you’re not expecting it.” She also has been known to perform in hoods & masks.

There’s also music from the New York-based 17-piece Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, along with music by new York drummer/composer John Hollenbeck, collaborating with the Austrian group Jazz Bigband Graz and featuring the vocalist Theo Bleckmann.  Plus, listen to the Carla Bley Big Band and their arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner", and music by Bjork.

PROGRAM #3609 Music for Big Bands (First aired on 6/10/2014)