Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
History
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra began as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. In 1966, the Village Vanguard in New York City booked the orchestra for three Monday night gigs. Since that initial run, an iteration of the orchestra has played regularly at the Vanguard on Monday nights. The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra became the Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1979 when Thad Jones moved to Denmark, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra when Lewis died in 1990. The band has recorded thirty-two albums, with seventeen picking up Grammy nominations, and two winning the award. Several members joined the orchestra when it still went by the Mel Lewis Orchestra, and members Dick Oatts (alto sax), Rich Perry (tenor sax), and Douglas Purviance (bass trombone) have been with the band since it was the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. More recent members include Terell Stafford (trumpet), and Marshall Gilkes (trombone). Jim McNeely has been the composer in residence since 1995, providing the scores for many of the group’s albums. Even with a fifty-year-long history, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra shows no signs of slowing down, and is definitely worth hearing live if you have the chance.