About
Who we are
A community big band out of Greeneville, Tennessee, playing the swing repertoire the way it was written — loud, tight, and danceable.
We are a group of local musicians who love to play swing music. Some of us have played together more than ten years. The band takes in high school students, music teachers, and people whose careers and musical backgrounds have nothing in common except this: we really enjoy playing together.
That mix is the point. A student sitting third trumpet next to someone who has been reading these charts since the Carter administration learns things no method book teaches. And the veterans get to hear the book come alive again through someone playing it for the first time.
If swing is new to you, come listen. Your toes won't stop tapping.
What a show sounds like
Full big band instrumentation — five saxes, four trumpets, four trombones, and a rhythm section — playing arrangements from the swing era and the decades that followed it. Charts by Basie, Ellington, Goodman, Miller, Calloway, Hampton, and Shaw sit alongside newer arrangements written for bands like ours. Soloists step out and improvise over the top, which is the part that makes every performance a little different from the last one.
At dances we sometimes run a short beginner lesson before the first set, so nobody has to stand at the edge of the floor wondering what to do.
Joining the band
We rehearse most Monday evenings and we are glad to hear from players at any stage — students who want the reading experience, adults getting back to an instrument after a long break, and anyone who has always wanted to sit in a horn section. Trombones especially: there is always room.
You do not need to audition into a chair before you talk to us. Send a note through the contact form or email info@greenevilleswingband.org and we will tell you when and where we meet.
On the stand
- Saxes
- Two altos, two tenors, baritone
- Trumpets
- Four, with flugelhorn when the chart asks
- Trombones
- Four, including bass trombone
- Rhythm
- Piano, guitar, bass, drums
- Rehearsals
- Most Monday evenings
- Home
- Greeneville, Greene County, TN
Background
A short history of the music we play
Swing is a style of jazz that developed in the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Big bands featured written arrangements for full sections, with soloists improvising over the top. From 1935 to 1946 — the swing era — it was the dominant form of American popular music, and the dance floors of the period belonged to the Lindy Hop.
The bandleaders of that era are still the backbone of any swing library: Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Earl Hines, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Jimmie Lunceford.
"Swing" is also a verb, and a compliment. A band that swings has a lean in its time — a drive that pulls listeners along whether or not they meant to be pulled. Getting there is the whole job.
Come hear us play
Most of our community shows are free. Check the schedule and bring somebody who thinks they don't like jazz.
See the schedule