The Big Band Era (roughly 1935 to 1945) witnessed the emergence of jazz music into the American mainstream at a time, according to Metronome magazine in 1943, "as important to American music as the time of Emerson and Thoreau and Whitman and...

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and contains...

A belated swinging 70th birthday party with an all-star guest list is planned for Nancy Wilson at this year's JVC Jazz Festival.The pop-jazz songstress, who turned 70 on Feb. 20, won her third Grammy Award earlier this year in the category of best jazz vocal...

John McHugh and Maggie Lee expect about 50 people at their wedding Friday. Their wedding reception could draw more than 4 million. The La Crosse couple decided to forgo hiring a band or DJ and let Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. provide the...

There has never been a better time for nostalgia. With tights harmonies and classic style, the Puppini Sisters' debut Betcha Bottom Dollar has arrived just in time for those of us needing a look back. Sisters in name only, the London-based group is styled both...

KAREN AKERS The Oak Room At The Algonquin Hotel 59 West 44th Street Through May 13 For music that pleases, sally forth to the Algonquin and catch the lovely chanteuse Karen Akers, looser and livelier than the reputation that precedes her, in a celebration of...

During the big band era were also a handful of all-female bands. The Harlem Harlicans, formed by Lil Armstrong in 1932, Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears, the Parisian Redheads and others were famous in their time, yet none survived history as the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm. Their story is a complex one. The band was the first integrated female band, and the most famous female band of their time .