Jazz Articles about Big Time Jazz Orchestra

Big Time Jazz Orchestra: Fanfare from Some Flounder?

by Jack Bowers
January 9, 2007

Whoever gave the Big Time Jazz Orchestra its name must have had a sense of humor, as the ensemble is comprised of part-time musicians, many of whom are high school or college teachers, and based in wintry Duluth, Minnesota, on the western shore of Lake Superior. Even the title of the orchestra's second album, Fanfare from Some Flounder?, seems to have been (pardon the pun) spawned with tongue firmly in cheek.

Happily, there is no horseplay once the music starts, ...

The Big Time Jazz Orchestra: BTJO

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2000

If a big–band album has no title or liner notes, one must presume that the ensemble and its music speak for themselves — and although the Big Time Jazz Orchestra from wintry Fargo, ND / Moorhead, MN, hasn’t yet acquired a consistently persuasive voice, it does have some agreeable statements to make on its debut recording. Among the strongest are those by the orchestra’s founder, tenor saxophonist Randy Lee, and trombonists Tim Stratioti and Chris Oberholtzer on Lee’s easygoing ballad, ...