Ken Loomer Big Band Live In Concert At The Straz Center Tampa,Florida Set One

Drummer Ken Loomer and his swinging Big Band live at the Straz Center For The Performing Arts in Tampa,Florida doing Set One of this concert. What I wanted to do was form a contemporary Big Band that was exciting and one that would showcase the great talents of my musicians on this great American artform call Big Band Jazz. It`s so rare now to have any new Big Band being being formed because of all the hard work it takes to put one together. I decided that this would be my challenge to see if this could be done. I love this type of music because of my father who took me as a young person to see all the great Big Bands of the 70`s. I saw Buddy Rich,Woody Herman,Maynard Ferguson and the one and only Count Basie. I was hooked on the sounds of these great Big Bands and knew this was what music at the highest level was all about. You had great arrangers that made listening to this music so much exciting to hear,plus you had soloists within the 16 piece Big Band who could make up their own music within the arrangement. The best of both worlds inside the sound of a Big Band. Being a drummer,I had the chance to see Buddy Rich,Louie Bellson and Gene Krupa many times and had talked with them all about jazz music and of course the role of a drummer in a Big Band. I learned from the best,and wanted to make sure this artform lives on! To me, it was all about the music and I wanted to do the best job possible in putting together a modern swinging Big Band. I wanted to do charts from the great concert Big Bands of the past like Buddy and Woody,but to make sure to always add new arrangements from todays great writers. To me it starts with the arrangers,then I add the musicians who can play these great charts. Since I live in the Tampa Bay Florida area,I had the honor of working with so many great jazz musicians who I wanted to play in my Big Band. Lucky for me I found musicians who believes in this type of music and had the talent and desire to play it right..This was a labor of love on my part,and of course to my musicians who made this Big Band possible. So I say thanks to you guys who have put so much into this project of mine,and I know in the long run we have made people happy with the sounds of this band. The feedback from all the people who have heard my Big Band lets me know that all the hard work has paid off.We will always try to improve this music,plus the fact I know everyone cares in my band to do it right. In this concert that I played at the Straz Center,I did some charts that you might of heard,plus some new orginal ones. Here in order are the charts we played for the first set of this concert. 1.Big Swing Face 2. Summertime 3. Things Ain`t What They Use To Be 4. Mercy Mercy 5. Wind Machine 6. My One And Only Love 7. Got Rhythm 8. Just In Time 9. Porgy And Bess Suite The intro of the band was done by Eric Dillner,who is the director of the Straz Center For The Performing Arts. The musicians in the Ken Loomer Big Band for this concert are Trumpe