A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1921
The United States Navy Band Northwest Big Band plays at a concert held in Oak Harbor High School.
Ockbrook Big Band at Pride Park Stadium
Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra. Other music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo-wop groups. In both popular music and classical music, there are ensembles in which both instrumentalists and singers perform, such as the rock band or the Baroque chamber group for basso continuo and one or more singers. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. Some ensembles blend the sounds of a variety of instrument families, such as the orchestra, which uses a string section, brass instruments, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, or the concert band, which uses brass, woodwinds, and percussion.
The Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestral is an example of a large classical musical ensemble.
Pori Worker's Society Brass Band in the 1920s in Pori, Finland
The Kneisel String Quartet, led by Franz Kneisel, is an example of chamber music. This American ensemble debuted Dvořák's American Quartet, Opus 96 (photographed c. 1891.)
An Iranian musical ensemble, painted by Kamal-ol-molk in 1886