Jazz Articles about BBC Big Band

About BBC Big Band

Album Review

The BBC Big Band is somewhat like the two–faced god Janus, showing its “hip” face to perceptive Jazz aficionados and its “square” face to those who simply want amiable background music that doesn’t require much thought. Trouble is, the record–buying public doesn’t always know which BBC band is going to show up. Another recent release, The Gleneagles, directed by Barrie Forgie, was disappointing to those of us who’d prefer more Jazz and less schmaltz; Evidence, directed by trombonist Jiggs Whigham, ...

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Album Review

BBC Big Band / RIAS Big Band: Live in Berlin

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 1999

Here’s a dynamic big–band recording that makes those pervasive duo–piano sessions we so often hear pale by comparison. In February ’98, Britain’s BBC and Germany’s RIAS big bands combined forces for an electrifying series of concerts in Dresden, Liepzig and Berlin that left the sold–out houses clamoring for encores. Besides sharing the stage, the ensembles double everyone’s pleasure by performing together on Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “I Let a Song Go Out ...