Big band Mondays! Come hang. No cover.
Note: The PJO events are open rehearsals. The group is working on the repertoire from the Stan Kenton book, and as part of our educational mission, we decided to open it up to the public, so that you may witness the process, by which the music is polished and developed for performance. The bar is open.
The name, "Phoenix Jazz Orchestra," is taken from the great bird of myth whose immortality is affirmed as it rises anew from its own ashes (they are not associated with the capitol of Arizona). The name parallels the timelessness of jazz music and, like the mythological bird, jazz as an art is constantly reborn and enduring.
The Phoenix Jazz Orchestra is an 18-piece jazz orchestra – a BIG band. This is the real thing – exciting, dynamic, demanding, requiring extraordinary skills and talent. An orchestra of the future, not a band of the past – looking forward while respecting and honoring the past. Playing music written now with enormous respect to those that came before, PJO is opening up a new synthesis of exciting music.
Members of the PJO range from seasoned professionals with years of experience on the concert stage to expert, highly talented younger musicians at the beginning of their careers. These musicians have performed and recorded with many of the great jazz orchestras, including those of Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Les and Larry Elgart, Glenn Miller, Bob Florence, Gordon Goodwin, Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones and many others. Additionally, they have performed on tour with such artists as Frank Sinatra, The Temptations, Wayne Newton, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Valli, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, Celia Cruz, Aretha Franklin. . . . . the list goes on.