[Rainer.]

Same deal.

[Ax]

I am definitely a Big Band guy. I love Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa, Lois Prima, Glenn Miller... all of those guys... I like a bit of latin too, but you said favorite so I chose one.

[MJ_Avalanche]

I chose every option EXCEPT Big Band. Because I really have to force myself to listen to Big Band stuff. Especially modern stuff. Older stuff I can dig more easily because it feels more authentic to me. The modern stuff is just... Bleh... To steril and "unjazzy".

Everything else I love... because of that one little word that MAKES Jazz what it is. I'll let you guess what that word is.

[Rainer.]

Originally Posted by MJ_Avalanche

I chose every option EXCEPT Big Band. Because I really have to force myself to listen to Big Band stuff. Especially modern stuff. Older stuff I can dig more easily because it feels more authentic to me. The modern stuff is just... Bleh... To steril and "unjazzy".

Everything else I love... because of that one little word that MAKES Jazz what it is. I'll let you guess what that word is.

Agreed. My jazz band director was talking about this very thing today. Big Band just lacks the essence of pure jazz.

[Sean.thomson]

Well, I dig just about every kind of jazz except for Smooth jazz. Just can't stand it.

[taiko]

Originally Posted by Rainer.

Agreed. My jazz band director was talking about this very thing today. Big Band just lacks the essence of pure jazz.

Well perhaps because most of what we hear from Big Bands came from the swing era and it was the dance music, disco if you like of its 10 year run at the top of the charts. Today are bands working as dance bands? Can jazz bands of that size make money enough to support a sax line like Woody Herman's Thundering Herd?

[Rainer.]

Yes, they were the pop bands of their time, but what I find distasteful is inherent in the setup of a big band. What a big band lacks is the open jazz improvisation which is really the basis of jazz. Instrumental lines are written and rehearsed in a big band setting, just because of the nature of the beast (can't have every instrument in the band just doing his/her own thing, it'd sound terrible). The people writing big band charts were composers, not necessarily improvisers. Some open solos are reminiscent of bop, but it's really just a moment in the grand scheme of the tune in big band jazz.

[Nate]

Wow. You're obviously not from New Orleans, eh?

[bread man]

I like Avant-Garde stuff the most. Guys like Mingus, Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Eric Dolphy, In a Silent Way/*****es Brew era Miles, etc.

[jengoesup]

I looooooove bebop: Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald before she started singing big band...I also like Diana Krall and Dave Bruebeck, not exactly sure where to place them.

I can't stand smooth jazz, though. I had to work a jazz festival for two days, and ALL they had was smooth jazz. And Brian McKnight. (He was a good vocalist, though.)

[Folk_guy]

Originally Posted by taiko

Well perhaps because most of what we hear from Big Bands came from the swing era and it was the dance music, disco if you like of its 10 year run at the top of the charts. Today are bands working as dance bands? Can jazz bands of that size make money enough to support a sax line like Woody Herman's Thundering Herd?

There are only a handful of well established big bands out there that can really make it and support themselves. There just isn't a market for big band music anymore. I've played trombone in several big bands, and it's really tough to get gigs anymore.

But getting back on topic, although I play in a big band it isn't my favorite form of Jazz to listen too. I listen to most Jazz, even the occasional cool Jazz (but not Kenny G, I'm still pissed at him for overdubbing himself over Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World"). I find myself listening to BeBob mostly when I put on a Jazz CD.

[Tomcat99]

I can't limit myself to just one. It depends on my mood.

[L4CES]

Hi All,

Can anyone here offer some advice?

Where can you go to find jazz solo arrangements of Christian songs for guitar? This obviously isn't the place.

Second question.

Where can you go to find lead sheets of popular Christian tunes that have been arranged with "jazzier" harmonies?

This site seems to be the usual open chord style chord charts. You know what I mean, the cowboy, country chords that beginners first learn when they are playing and if you change keys you don't learn additional chords simply apply a capo. This is great for beginning guitar players, as it makes the music easy and approachable and I realize most guitar players in praise and worship bands are novices...but what happens when you have several musicians in your P&W team that are more advanced musicians and like jazz?

Another problem is that we have horns that play in our praise and worship team. We need to also find arrangements in some of the more normal keys. Like Bb, Eb, Ab. Horn players hate the keys of E and A.

[Folk_guy]

L4CES unfortunately I'm not sure that there are many Jazz arrangements of contemporary Christian music, it's a struggle to even find recordings of Christian music in this style. I think if you want Jazz arrangements of this music you'll probably have to play around with chord substitutions in the CCM charts, and come up with your own.

[dogfood]

hmmm, ive been all day on a music website that allows you to make up playlists and stuff.

my favourite genre is Acid Jazz.