OURBIGBAND performs the music of Steve Grover

OURBIGBAND celebrates the music of the late, great, Maine composer, and educator Steve Grover. Grover was the elder statesman of the Maine jazz scene, a beloved figure with outsize influence on several generations of musicians through his work as a professor at UMaine Augusta, co-leading the Maine Jazz Camp, teaching lessons privately and at schools throughout, and mentoring musicians through his own bands. Over more than a dozen records, he recorded with modern jazz heavyweights such as Lenny Breau, Chris Speed, George Garzone, Aaron Goldberg, Ben Street, and his frequent collaborators in the Steve Grover Trio, Tony Gaboury and David Wells. His best known record, the 1994 setting of Wallace Stevens, The Blackbird Suite, won the Thelonious Monk Institute composition award, the most prestigious international award in jazz.

 

OURBIGBAND seeks to keep alive the tradition of the big band jazz orchestra and through collaboration with today’s finest jazz performers and composers, strives to bring new, creative, relevant music to our community and beyond. Past collaborators and featured guests include Dave Douglas, Ben Allison, Matt Ulery, Frank Carlberg, Matt Wilson, Curtis Hasselbring, Kendall Moore, and Greg Abate. OURBIGBAND is comprised of instrumentalists, composers, bandleaders, educators, and like minded musicians who give generously of their time and talents, and take quite seriously the charge to keep the tradition alive while championing the music of today.