Big Band Swing dance arrangements of traditional Yuletide melodies.

16 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Swing/Big Band, JAZZ: Big Band



Details:
The combination of Big Bands and American traditional music is as much a part of our heritage as Motherhood and Apple Pie. The great bandleaders of the Swing Era routinely turned to their roots for inspiration. Benny Goodman serenaded audiences with Sweet Georgia Brown, couples swayed to Tommy Dorsey's Deep River, and Glenn Miller gave us his rendition of Little Brown Jug.

In Swing Out Santa, Clark Murray carries on the tradition he began in Swing Out America with Swing arrangements of Yuletide melodies. The orchestration of these melodies features two distinct Big Band ensembles-a Hot Band consisting of the classic complement of trumpets, trombones and saxophones and a Cool Band which showcases clarinet and trombone sections accompanied by vibes.

Murray finds the inspiration for his Swing arrangements in the popular West Coast Big Band venues leading the revival of Swing-notably San Francisco's Top of the Mark and the Beverly Hilton's Coconut Club. This album represents a new direction for Murray, whose first two critically-acclaimed releases, Coeur du Soleil and Yosemite Journey, followed New Age stylings.