Wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard there would be a 25-piece (!) big band playing on the miniscule JZ stage, but I had to find out what it was all about. Turned out they were a pretty good sounding band out of California, consisting of what seemed to be half high-school kids and half older people. Maybe a couple in between. And not all 25 played at the same time, I think that number counted some alternate rhythm section members as well as the tap dancer. This website, which appears to be the one for this band, seems to indicate that they are a high school band, but maybe this group was only partly related to that school…
Anyway they had a solid group sound, but only one or two really strong soloists. The pianist was great, they also played a few of his original compositions in trio format during the second set. They had a tap dancing mom whose husband was the lead trumpet player and whose kid was one of the drummers. It was refreshing to hear some really good big band charts played, it’s been a while. And they played a good range of stuff, from Ellington to Nestico to Thad Jones.