Jazz from Brentwood 

Brentwood School Big Band was founded in 1983 and has been steadily establishing its reputation at home and abroad giving regular Concerts in England and also across Europe. In 1998 the Big Band toured Prague with the Brentwood School Symphony Orchestra. Trips to Siena to take part in the Summer Music Festival along with visits to places such as Salzburg and Nuremburg over a number of years, have given our pupils many and varied opportunities to perform. Alongside the concert schedule, the Band has released a number of CDs showcasing the talent of students and these are available to buy during the interval.

Recently the Big Band has taken a new direction with its music, concentrating on recreating the iconic sound worlds of arrangers like Sammy Nestico and Dave Wolpe, the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington whilst also accompanying vocalists in the style of Sinatra and Fitzgerald.  Pupils have enjoyed developing their ensemble and listening skills in learning new repertoire, feeling the ‘groove’ and then using this to inform the way we ‘swing’!  Another key focus of the Big Band is that all should be encouraged to improvise and that this expressive language, central to the jazz idiom, is something to be enjoyed.