I like the power and versatility of a big band and how an…

Duke Ellington's career traces the entire history of jazz. The repertoire associated with him contains the most important elements in the music and provides…

— Billy Taylor

It is very important to me that my songs can sound amazing with a big band or orchestra, but just as powerful and touching…

— Tessanne Chin

With a smaller setting, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility within a given moment, but not necessarily the velocity you have with…

— Kurt Elling

I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band.

— Kurt Elling

Traveling with a big band is like being an inmate in a traveling zoo.

— Hoagy Carmichael

“Invited to think of the futuristic, we will still come up with something like the music of Kraftwerk, even though this is now as…

— Mark Fisher

When I write a tune - and it's been like this for many years - I always hear in the back of my head…

— John Scofield

Rock and roll and swing never quite mixed. Rock and roll came in and just blew everything out of the water. Big bands were…

— Brian Setzer

Then I left that school and I went to Cerritos College, which was in southern California; they had one of the best big band…

— Bobby McFerrin

[Thelonious] Monk is a subject in itself. I mean, most piano players in most big bands sit down and they play with the band,…

— Ray Brown

I grew up in a very musical family, my father was a musician and a big band leader and made records.

— Billy Sherwood

“GOD. Sometimes I think there might be a god out there, and that every once in a while he tunes in to see what…

— Suzanne Morrison

My brother had a big band in high school; after that we continued to play together, eventually forming a group called the Jazz Brothers,…

— Chuck Mangione

My brother was always in bands and on the road when I was a kid and he was my inspiration. He never made it…

— Jimmy Chamberlin

When I was playing piano, it was like, 'I'm going to write a song using all the white keys.' My music director, who knew…

— John Tesh