Jekyll Island Big Band

" about us..."

PERSONNELHaving been around 30 years, the Jekyll Island Big Band has had the pleasure and advantage to amass a talented network of area musicians. Our players are all professionally experienced from symphonic, club & cruise ship instrumentalists to music educators.

   There are 15 pieces in the Jekyll Island Big Band.        

The director conducts 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 5 saxophones, bass, piano, & drums.  Occasionally, joined by a guitar, vocalist, or congas & steel drums!

IN THE PRESS    This article was published in the July 1999 periodical Best Read Guide to Savannah and was written by their staff writer Peter Crume.  ( edited for space )

At the dance you waltzed across the room with her, feeling as if you floated on a puffy cloud, the sounds of the music thrilling you to the marrow.  In the slow dances you held her close, your heart pounding so loud that you were afraid she would hear it.  Years later you may think that you may never hear that moment again, that they don't make music like that any more. 

The Jekyll Island Big Band Does.  The Big Band plays the music you treasured in your youth, the music to which you first courted and kissed.  It performs about a dozen times a year across Jekyll Island.  In the two decades since it came together, the band has attracted a large following in the Low Country, with people coming from as far away as Savannah and Macon to hear the band and kick up their heels.  The youth of today pay the band the ultimate compliment, characterizing its sound as "fat".

Most of the Big Band's material hails from the era of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and Count Basie.  The music is elegant, at once rapturous and also swinging.  Its main venue, the old Aquarama, is well suited for the band's live ballroom sound, and the musicians will play anything from the standards of decades gone by to old-fashioned rock 'n roll and line dances.  With the renaissance of live music, the Big Band has attracted a new generation of followers, young people who like to...jitterbug or to gyrate to the twist.

When you come to see the Jekyll Island Big Band, you will find your feet tapping and your shoulders swinging to the sounds that you enjoyed on your first date...when swing was king and you borrowed your car to take your girl to the dance.     --Peter Crume