2023 Lineup / Big Band

The musical focus of the LGS Big Band is dance, jazz, Latin and vocals in all styles. The classics from Miller, Basie, Brown, and Goodman are among the featured songs as well as more modern works by arrangers such as Nestico, Goodwin, Carter, Hefti, Wolpe and more.

The Serenaders band was originally formed in 1983 and has been active in various forms ever since. Although the band has always highlighted jazz standards from the proverbial Great American Songbook, it has evolved to include big band and swing versions of contemporary jazz and popular music.

Synchronicity is a classical jazz ensemble of alumni from various Bay Area big bands, in the tradition of Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones and Oliver Nelson.

Top Shelf Big Band brings the swinging sounds of live jazz and ballroom dancing to life. Enjoy vintage jazz and standards made famous by groups like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and Les Brown with this 17-piece orchestra.

The premier West Coast Latin music ensemble, La Verdad, is a collective of world-class musicians whom embody the truth of the Los Angeles Latino experience through their blend of traditional and original repertoire that spans the scope of Latin American route music including salsa, cha cha, boogaloo and Latin soul.

Full Spectrum Big Band Jazz has delighted audiences with traditional and modern big band sounds since 1996. Performance styles range from laid-back Count Basie swing to poly-rhythmic modern Latin. FSJ has a diverse catalog of exceptional music, including original compositions and venerable jazz standards.

Composer, bassist and educator Marcus Shelby formed his namesake orchestra in 1999 to give proper voice to his compositions that modernized the big band idiom. For this set the latest incarnation of the band performs with longtime collaborator Tiffany Austin, of whom DownBeat said: “West Coast vocal jazz simply gets no better than Tiffany Austin.”

The SOJ Big Band was formed almost 20 years ago in the south San Francisco Bay Area to play big band arrangements of gospel and swing, Latin, R&B and jazz tunes.

Footnotes Jazz Band is a San Francisco Bay Area ensemble that showcases contemporary and original big band jazz. Its founding members once played together in the Foothill College jazz program, before going independent under the leadership of Lori Stotko.

The NASA Ames Jazz Band (AJB) is the large ensemble of the “Jazz Band” Club of the NASA Ames Exchange.  The group’s eighteen musicians are drawn from the Ames community, as well as from the local Bay Area.

The Swing Solution is a classic big band specializing in music from the ’40s through the swing revival of the ’90s and beyond.