Jack Twomey invites you to some interesting big band rehearsals he has led over the years with the many fine musicians in the Jazz Thunder Big Band.
The Magnificent Four: Trumpeters Charlie Franklin, Todd Walker, Larry Gillespie, and James Smith provide a dynamic force in Jack Twomey's Jazz Thunder Big Band.
The Jack Twomey Jazz Thunder Big Band rehearses, featuring one of the best trombone sections in New York: Dale Turk, Ron Hay, Michael Engstrom and Alex Jeun. Tenor Saxophone player and arranger Peter Anderson at right. Bassist Ken Rizzo.
Many people made the Big Band Era possible. The late George T. Simon was one of the chief scribes of the Swing Era as Editor of Metronome Magazine. George was a close friend of Glenn Miller, as well as Miller's first recording session drummer. He was also an heir to the Simon and Shuster book publishing house, and an uncle of Carly Simon. George was always interesting to talk with between sets when his band played at the Red Blazer in NYC. His group played before my band performed on alternating Wednesday nights in the early 90's. His books on the big bands; "The Big Band Era", "Glenn Miller and His Orchestra", and "Simon Says: The Sights And Sounds of the Swing Era", were among the first books ever written about the Band Era, and are indispensible guides. "Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era" is filled with very rare pictures and his original reviews of hundreds of bands. He told me that he would have liked to have had it reprinted, but it never was.
