People often do not believe me when I tell them that the real reason I started a bigband after moving to New York was peer pressure. But I am not kidding when I say that putting together an 18-piece ensemble to play my own music started to seem a lot more reasonable in light of the fact that basically everyone I knew was also doing it. New York is blessed (or cursed, I guess, take your pick) with a staggering number of composer-led, progressive-minded bigbands, and now, thanks to my Pulse colleague JC Sanford, those bands have a home.
The "Size Matters" series, curated by the estimable Mr. Sanford, runs every Monday night at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope (sets at 9:00 PM & 10:30 PM). The series launched earlier this year and features a different Brobdingnagian beast every week -- I've been to several shows I've been uniformly blown away by the writing and playing.
The September schedule is here -- there are some great hits coming up, including bands led by Jeff Fairbanks, Javier Arau, JC himself, and another Pulsekateer, Jamie Begian. In October it's Asuka Kakitani, Russ Spiegel, Noriko Ueda , and Gary Morgan & PanAmericana. Great things are happening in this space. Plus, you basically have no excuse not to come because there is no cover. Although I know I can count on you to do the right thing by these hardworking bigbandleaders and drop at least five bucks (the "suggested donation") in the tip jar.
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