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.