William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By age 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them until Moten's death in 1935. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams.

Los Angeles College of Music hosted a special live streaming event with Gordon Goodwin, four time GRAMMY® Award winning pianist, saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and arranger, and his BIG PHAT BAND, on November 8, 2015. They performed selections from their new album 'WRAP THIS' at Los Angeles College of Music. Gordon L. Goodwin (born 1954) is an American pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is the leader of Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, and on faculty at the Los Angeles College of Music. He has won Grammy Awards and Daytime Emmy Awards and has received over twenty Grammy nominations for his compositions and arrangements. Gordon L. Goodwin (born 1954) is an American pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is the leader of Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, and on faculty at the Los Angeles College of Music. He has won Grammy Awards and Daytime Emmy Awards and has received over twenty Grammy nominations for his compositions and arrangements. Goodwin has risen to prominence in the American studio music scene with his big band, The Big Phat Band. In the band, he plays piano and occasionally both the soprano and tenor saxophone. This band brings together players such as Wayne Bergeron, Eric Marienthal, and Andy Martin. These detailed music charts are all written or adapted by Gordon Goodwin. Several of his songs are plays on old jazz tunes: a prime example is Sing, Sang, Sung, which mimics the famous Louis Prima song Sing, Sing, Sing.

Thaddeus Joseph Jones (28 mars 1923 -- 21 août 1986) est un trompettiste, compositeur et chef d'orchestre de jazz américain. Thad Jones est né à Pontiac (Michigan) dans une famille nombreuse de musiciens (un de ses frères plus âgé est le pianiste Hank Jones et un autre plus jeune le batteur Elvin Jones). Autodidacte, Thad Jones est musicien professionnel dès l'âge de 16 ans. Il joue dans des orchestres de l'U.S. Army pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale de 1943 à 1946. Après la guerre, Thad Jones poursuit sa carrière et vers 1954, il compose et fait des arrangements pour Count Basie avec lequel il joue. Il reste avec Basie pendant neuf ans. La musique de Jones était d'un style très original qui ne correspondait pas toujours avec le style de l'orchestre de Basie. Au début des années 1960, il devient arrangeur indépendant dans la région de New York. En 1965, avec le batteur Mel Lewis, il forme le Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band (successeur aujourd'hui: {Vanguard Jazz Orchestra}). À l'origine le groupe commence par des jam sessions informelles dans les studios de New York puis au célèbre Village Vanguard. Le groupe reçoit un accueil très favorable et Jones continue à le diriger pendant 12 ans. En 1979, ils remportent un Grammy Awards pour l'album Live in Munich. Jones a aussi enseigné au William Paterson College dans le New Jersey.

0:00 Jingle Bells 2:17 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 8:44 White Christmas 13:58 Zat You, Santa Claus? 20:10 A Cradle in Bethlehem 25:45 We Three Kings 32:03 What Child Is This? 40:02 Merry Christmas Baby 44:55 It's Easy to Blame the Weather 49:35 I'll Be Home for Christmas 54:31 Good Morning Blues 1:00:05 Band Introductions

The Concert Jazz Orchestra will study and perform original composition provide by the teachers, as well as original compositions of the students in the ensemble class. The focus of the class will be on performing original compositions written for a big band. Emphasis will be given to hearing and expressing your musical ideas with stylistic integrity, as well as melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic accuracy. An end-of-semester concert is usually scheduled. Department: ENS Course chair: Sean Skeete

The Life and Music of Dave Brubeck April 12, 2014 Rose Theater The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis explores Brubeck's extraordinary legacy with fresh arrangements that illuminate the breadth and scope of his work. Brubeck is credited with bringing jazz to the mainstream in the 1950s and 60s and releasing the first jazz album to sell over a million copies. 2:14 Unsquare Dance 7:42 Three to Get Ready 12:47 The Duke 18:43 Cassandra 25:40 Strange Meadowlark 32:01 Who Will Take Care of Me? 36:45 It's a Raggy Waltz 43:16 Tokyo Traffic 51:07 Take Five 57:18 Lost Waltz 1:04:50 Upstage Rhumba 1:12:31 In Your Own Sweet Way 1:18:06 Fast Life 1:25:33 Bluette 1:31:50 Blue Rondo a la Turk Executive Producer: Len Riggio