The World's Greatest Jazz Band
The World's Greatest Jazz Band was a successful touring band led by Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart who played traditional jazz between 1968 and 1978.
The band was formed in 1968 on the initiative of millionaire Dick Gibson on the occasion of his (annual) Colorado Jazz Party . It initially consisted of musicians from the Lawson Haggart Band of the 1950s and the orchestra of Bob Crosby and met several times a year to go on tour. Founding members were Lawson, Haggart, Bob Wilber , Ralph Sutton and Billy Butterfield . Later, in addition to Lawson and Haggart, the band also included George Masso , Nick Fatool , Morey Feld , Johnny Mince , Bud Freeman , Peanuts Hucko , Nappy Lamare , Carl Fontana , Gus Johnson , Johnny Best , Bobby Rosengarden , Red Richards and Jim Galloway , but also Eddie Lockjaw Davis or Jay McShann .
The band gained great popularity with their live performances and with their records at the time of their activity. This was not only due to the somewhat cocky name, but also to the potential of first-class musicians who initially played in it. The live recordings from Massey Hall and Carnegie Hall and early studio recordings such as Century Plaza , but also Plays Duke Ellington (1976) are considered exemplary. In the last few years of its existence there have been major staff changes and fluctuations in the line-up, which has had a negative effect on their musical standard.
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- Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .