Under the leadership of Steve Fischer, the 18-piece Straight Ahead Big Band plays a wide variety of music associated with famous big bands, and especially the "straight-ahead" (hence the name) style of bands such as those lead by Count Basie. The band started as a rehearsal band in Redding, Northern California, but soon was performing. Since then there have been many concerts, club dates, fairs, festivals, parties and weddings all over the north state. The group has grown a little and changed a few personnel over the years, as happens in the band business, but Steve and many of the original group are still in it and going strong.
Steve & his wife Nancy have squeezed the band into Redding’s Patchcord Studio several times now, producing four big band CDs:"First Take," "Second Track," "The Third Time," and now "All I Want 4 Christmas," plus a combo CD, "Take Six." All CDs offer a fine variety of ensemble work, solo instrumentals and vocals in a most enjoyable big band style. If you have a chance to catch the big band in a live setting, you’re in for a real treat, because there is nothing that compares to a real full sized band of this type, and this group does it very well, indeed.
Whether for listening or dancing, there will be something for every fan of big band music at each performance. Besides Count Basie, there are the familiar sounds of Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Stan Kenton to listen for, as well as newer music in the genre and tunes written and arranged by some of the band's past and present members. The big band sound that filled America's dance and concert halls for years is alive -- swinging and thriving in Redding!!!
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