The Big Band

by Thorsten Wollmann

Composing and arranging for big band nowadays: it’s no easy task, as Jazz Award winner Thorsten Wollmann knows from experience. A brief overview of the past and present of this quintessential jazz ensemble.

Published in the magazine “Jazz Podium”, issue 6-7/2022.

Big bands are to jazz what orchestras are to classical music: large ensembles that enable the interplay of many musicians, usually under the direction of an experienced conductor. Playing music together is of course also possible in smaller groups, but orchestral elements offer a more layered sound, unexpected tones, and it is always fascinating to experience the sheer power of a well-played tutti live.

Larger jazz ensembles initially emerged in traditional jazz out of the necessity to play mainly outdoors. A sound that could carry far was needed. Perhaps one even wanted to march, as in funeral parades. Louder brass instruments such as the cornet and trombone were ideal, as were clarinet and saxophone, banjo, and both small and large drums. For a rich bass sound, one played sousaphone or tuba. It was only when bands increasingly performed in clubs that the piano became established as a harmony instrument, the guitar replaced the banjo, and the plucked double bass could be amplified. In a hall, one could dance to swing music, which probably increased revenue and allowed the jazz band to expand. A section of multiple trumpets and trombones suddenly became feasible, as did one with multiple saxophones.

The drum set became the center of the rhythm section, and a conductor or bandleader was needed to hold it all together. During the 1920s and 1930s, ensembles like the Fletcher Henderson Band or the Duke Ellington Jazz Orchestra emerged. The great Swing big bands of the 1940s, all led by arrangers and/or instrumentalists, such as clarinetists Benny Goodman and Woody Herman, trumpeter Harry James, or trombonists Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, established the typical big band standard lineup still used today: it consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, and a rhythm section.

Even though the music has changed significantly, both radio big bands and university big bands as well as other professional and amateur big bands around the world still play in this lineup. Deviations from this are rarely seen, and if they are, they mainly involve the use of so-called “doublings,” i.e., switching from saxophones to second instruments such as flute, clarinet, and bass clarinet, or occasionally the addition of a fifth trumpet or trombone.

Music for an ensemble with 17 players is no longer so easy to improvise, and the lead sheets that are still common in jazz quartets or quintets—compositional sketches spanning one or two pages, usually with only melodies and chord symbols—are no longer sufficient for big band performances. What was and still is needed today are composers and arrangers who write new works for big bands to keep the genre alive.

Arranging has a long tradition in jazz. It is the adaptation of a work, either one’s own or someone else’s, for a specific ensemble, sometimes involving a stylistic reworking. Renowned jazz arrangers like Billy Strayhorn or Gil Evans enjoyed bringing classically tested works into jazz contexts ('The Nutcracker' and 'Peer Gynt' Suites, 'Sketches of Spain'). Big band charts by arranger Bill Holman often contain contrapuntal writing techniques.

Composing for a big band, however, means creating a completely new, original work and arranging it so that it is playable by a big band. Today, there are no stylistic limits. Although the lineup is so well established, it is still surprising to discover the as yet untapped possibilities in sound, textures, orchestration, and forms. Of course, there is also the appeal of combining big band music with improvisation—the majority of big bands have very good, individually acting soloists for this. Bob Brookmeyer, the composer and trombonist of West Coast cool jazz, pointed out in his two-year Jazz Composers Workshop at the University of Music in Cologne, which I was able to attend in the 1990s, that most jazz compositions for larger ensembles offer more possibilities in terms of form and thematic development than are generally utilized.

The song form of lead sheets, as well as it may work for small groups, was too unartistic for him when it came to longer works for larger jazz ensembles. Comparisons, especially with more complex symphonic orchestra compositions of late Romanticism, were often discussed in the workshop—Gustav Mahler for instance, wrote symphonic movements of up to thirty minutes duration with only three themes, without repetitions, without improvisations, and without the use of a rhythm section.

When composing for big band, authors are required to engage with classical disciplines such as harmony, counterpoint, composition techniques, orchestration, form, and improvisation. There are textbooks and university courses available for each of these subjects. For big band composition today, one needs some technology, such as good music notation software and a computer, if one does not, as I did during my studies, want to constantly hand-write scores. But most importantly, one needs one’s own ideas and a fresh, new approach to this wonderful tradition.

As a child, I once asked in awe when listening to a big band: “Can one person think up all these sounds?” It’s possible, and anyone can do it. Not all compositions need to be long works. A 32-bar big band arrangement of a simple song can also offer a wonderful task, and the resulting work will always be something completely different than when arranged for a smaller group.