Orbit | Updated: April 22, 2026
Active since: 2008
The Albany Jazz Band began 30 years ago as a hobbyist community practice group in Albany, California. In 2008, under new leadership, the band shifted toward a more serious performance focus. By 2013, they recorded their first album, AJB Alive 2013, created primarily for family and friends. Since then, with Bob Levenson as Musical Director, Richard Kalman as Vocal Director, the band has broadened its repertoire and embraced more challenging contemporary arrangements.
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Albany Jazz Big Band: Moonlight Rhapsodies
by Jack Bowers
Even though “road bands" are by and large a relic of the distant past, big bands continue to persevere and perform in cities across the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago, Dallas to Atlanta, and even in Albany, California, a pocket-sized city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay whose population is only slightly more than 20,000. The Albany Jazz Big Band, now almost 30 years old, entered a studio in June 2024 to record its first ...
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Gordon Goodwin
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Jon Hendricks
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