The Gainesville Big Band began as the Gainesville Community Jazz Band. Since 2007, the band has brought big band jazz to Gainesville and the surrounding areas. The GBB is a 18 piece jazz band that plays a wide range of big band styles such as traditional swing, dance, latin, and contemporary jazz. The musicians have a deep passion for jazz and a commitment to presenting quality performances to all audiences in Gainesville or wherever the GBB may travel.

GBB

GBB

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Food for thought

Here is an article that concerns jazz and classical music as it relates to online streaming. Happy reading!


It’s not just David Byrne and Radiohead: Spotify, Pandora and how streaming music kills jazz and classical

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Gainesville Big Band

Hello everyone,

After much thought and discussion, the GCJB is changing it's name to the Gainesville Big Band. We are re-branding and are trying to build a bigger audience as well as have the opportunity to play in more venues. We are very much still a part of the Gainesville community but as musicians, we'd like to be able to play functions(i.e. jazz festivals) outside of Gainesville as well. Unfortunately, having "community" in the title limited us from doing that. Some people felt that we are a bunch of people that just get together and play for fun and don't sound very good. While we do play for fun and the love of jazz, we do take the music we make very seriously. When we went by Jazz Band, that left our size up to interpretation. Some people thought we were anything from a trio to a large dance band to everything in between.  We were often confused with the Gainesville Community Band because our names were similar. The titles were off by one word. At times, people thought they were getting a concert band instead of a jazz band. Changing our name to big band will clear up any confusion of who we are and what we do.

While this is a little change, it still is a change. One thing that will not change is the quality music that we present to public and our private events. We were very successful as the GCJB but we are hoping to grow that success as the GBB  We are excited to begin a new chapter of the band and hope to see you at one of shows in the near future.

Sincerely,

Marco Thomas
Gainesville Big Band Director

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Date Change

The Gainesville Community Jazz Band will now perform at Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Store on Sunday July 20 at 6:00pm for their annual Crazy Flavor Night. Come out and enjoy some cool jazz along with some cool ice cream. Sorry for the inconvenience. Visit their website:

http://gainesvilleicecream.com/

Monday, July 7, 2014

Explore New Music

Explore new music with our jazz blogs links. Some of the music will definitely take you in a different direction and some music will be original but in a traditional format. Get adventurous. Here are three artists to get you started:



Tim Hegarty

Sara Serpa

Ellen Rowe