The Rhythm Section Jazz Band (RSJB) is an American jazz band based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The ensemble was formed in June 2002 for the purpose of advocating the performance of American music from the first half of the 20th century. The ensemble refers to itself as a "Little Big Band" and is made up of 10 musicians: 2 alto saxophonists, a tenor saxophonist, a trombonist, a trumpeter, a pianist, a guitarist, a bass guitarist, a drumer, and a singer. Since its inception, the band has toured throughout the United States and has held over 155 recording sessions.
The RSJB's repertoire is taken from the Paul Sherwood Music Arrangement Archive an archive of over 3,500 arrangements for jazz bands and theater orchestras. Some of the gifted arrangers represented in this archive include: Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, Spud Murphy, Lou Halmy, Don Redman, Joe Glover, Dave Wolpe, Earl Holt, Sammy Nestico, Fud Livingston, Will Hudson, Jack Mason, Frank Skinner, Jimmy Dale, Fred Van Eps, Jimmy Lally, Larry Clinton, Larry Wagner, Frank Mantooth, Glenn Osser, David Drubeck, Frank Metis, Walter Paul, Bob Lowden, Jerry Gray, Louis Katzman, Archie Bleyer, Arthur Lange, Ken Macomber, Johnny Warrington, Bill Oliver, George Snowhill, Roger Holmes, Lennie Hiehaus, Art McKay, Hawley Ades, Johnny Sterling, Sid Phillips, Milton Ager, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Buck Ram, W.C. Polla, Marty Paich, Bob Haring, Van Alexander, and Teddy Black among others.
Famous quotes containing the words rhythm, section, jazz and/or band:
“Great is the art,
Great be the manners, of the bard.
He shall not his brain encumber
With the coil of rhythm and number;
But, leaving rule and pale forethought,
He shall aye climb
For his rhyme.
“Pass in, pass in,” the angels say,”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... all my letters are read. I like that. I usually put something in there that I would like the staff to see. If some of the staff are lazy and choose not to read the mail, I usually write on the envelope “Legal Mail.” This way it will surely be read. It’s important that we educate everybody as we go along.”
—Jean Gump, U.S. pacifist. As quoted in The Great Divide, book 2, section 10, by Studs Terkel (1988)
“The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons.”
—Imamu Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)
“And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o’er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.”
—Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1783–1835)