BIG BAND JAZZ SERIES

This is the last concert series that I produced. It was nearly fifty years ago in 1977-78. I was 38 years old at the time. We had a fabulous party at the top of the near-by Camlin Hotel on opening night. Buddy Rich gave his drum sticks to Burke’s son, Patrick Garrett, (who was studying percussion at the time). I wrote the following copy about this project.

The five show package featured the greatest swing bands in the world. The series included Buddy Rich and his big bad-ass aggregation, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band out of New York. Although all these groups were touring with a few older well known swing-era sidemen, most of the players were young cream-of-the-crop musicians recently graduated from institutions such as North Texas State, Julliard and The Eastman School of Music. It’s just not possible to describe the power and energy of these great groups. They simply blew us all away.

For all of these shows there were a couple dozen un-sold seats in the orchestra pit. I used this off-the- manifest seating to comp newspaper editors, radio folks and personal friends. In the pit you were literally sitting right in front of the bands.

We made a small profit with the Big Band Series – drawing 1500-1800 people to each show - but it is very difficult to make money with jazz in the concert business. Although the series was successful – truly an exciting and fulfilling project - the Big Band Series was Garrett Attractions Company’s last hurrah in the concert business. It was an inspirational way to end my busy decade producing and touring concerts.

ABOUT BOB NEIN

As I think about this project, I want to thank my friend and associate, Robert Nein for his fine skills and hard work in making The Big Band Series a success.  Bob’s background in public relations and advertising was a real plus. I was grateful for his good work on the project. Bob did a fine job as general manager of The Big Band Series.  He had good marketing and public relations skills and was a quick study with respect to concert promotion. Since Bob was also a long-time professional piano player, he was in his comfort zone with Garrett Attraction’s swinging Big Band jazz series.

Stan Kenton led a succession of highly original bands that often emphasized emotion, power, a big brass section and advanced harmonies. This upset listeners who felt that all big bands should aim to sound like Count Basie. Kenton always had a different vision for his band.

Maynard Ferguson dropped out of the High School of Montreal when he was fifteen to pursue his love of music, performing in dance bands led by Stan Wood, Roland David, and Johnny Holmes. Although trumpet was his primary instrument, he also performed on other brass and reed instruments.

Thad Jones and Mel Lewis: New York City’s hard-driving premium jazz band in the swing era. Few big band drummers in the history of Jazz have ever been more successful than Mel Lewis, who capped his career for more than a decade-and-a-half of performing with the big band he co-led with Thad Jones.

Herman became a touring musician when he joined the Tom Gerun band in 1929. In 1934 he became part of the Isham Jones Juniors. Herman went on to use Jone’s most talented sidemen to form his own ensemble, which he ultimately publicized as the “The Thundering Herd”.