In 2002, when conductor and composer, Alan Baylock was writing and arranging music for the Air Force Band, he realized he needed another outlet for his own creative energy in the big band setting. Like so many band leaders before him, he formed his own group and called it, appropriately, the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra. He and his band lead the District’s 7th Annual Big Band Jam to its roaring finale at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
The Big Band Jam provides settings for area jazz bands taking part in April’s Jazz Appreciation Month, the goal of which is to turn students and the community on to the capital’s unique jazz heritage.
| Onstage |
| Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra |
| Where: Millennium Stage, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St. NW |
| When: 6 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: Free; 800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org |
Baylock, whose music has been performed and recorded by such jazz luminaries as Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan and Spryo Gyra, is set to perform with his full 17-piece orchestra.
“I’ll have five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, guitar and drums,” he said excitedly. “The D.C. area is amazingly full of world class talent.”
Baylock’s band plays almost exclusively his own arrangements of classic tunes or his original compositions. With two CDs under his belt, (“Two Seconds to Midnight,” released in 2003 and “Eastern Standard Time,” in 2008) he chats about the lineup for the Millennium Stage performance.
“We’ll be playing a couple of Beatles tunes, actually,” he said, adding quickly, “the tunes are still theirs — I don’t change the melodies but [the songs] are definitely in new clothes!”
Baylock opens the evening with some Freddie Hubbard, who he considers “a great jazz trumpet player.” Two of Duke Ellington’s tunes also fuel the lineup.
“Ellington was a big influence on my own upbringing and definitely on my composing and arranging,” he said. “[Ellington] is from the D.C. area and his music is always appropriate.”
