The Big band

A "Big Band" is an orchestral group, professional or amateurish, who plays the repertoire of jazz, especially in the swing style into the 1960s from those years, the avant-garde and free Jazz starting to look at this type of band. Its name comes from English and means literally "large group". It is sometimes called "stage band".

Enrolment

The more traditional use four instrumental sections, also called panels :

• saxophones, two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones and a baritone sax. Often multi-instrumentalists, the saxophonists can hold other reed instruments like clarinet and soprano saxophone, or sometimes flute
• trombones, four in number, the fourth is often a bass trombone;
• trumpets, also the number four and sometimes five, sometimes also use horns or bugles ;
• rhythm section: piano (or organ) contrabass (or bass) and drums, often supplemented by guitar and sometimes other percussion ;
• the director, who is sometimes also a composer and arranger, is responsible for the cohesion of the orchestra and sometimes gives his name to the "big band" ;
• there are also sometimes found one or more singers who interpret songs or melodies (which sometimes gives the "scat") solo, accompanied by the rest of the orchestra ;
• sometimes other instruments complete the whole : tuba, French horn, vibraphone, etc...

(Source: wikipedia.org - copyright authors - article under GFDL)