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The Olympia Jazz Senators Big Band includes the finest jazz musicians in the South Puget Sound area. Members hail from Florida to Alaska, and graduated from top music schools like Eastman on the east coast, to Pacific Lutheran on this coast, and seemingly everywhere in between. Several Senators played worldwide with US armed forces bands including the Air Force Airmen of Note, and the Navy, Army, and Marine bands.
Most Senators front professional bands of their own, play in other working bands, and teach numerous private students. The Jazz Senators donate their Monday “night off” to playing hot big-band jazz in Olympia. Seven Senators are current or former public school music teachers, who lead their students through professional example.
Drawn from a vast custom library, the Olympia Jazz Senators perform the full range of big band jazz. One minute you might hear an authentic Glen Miller dance tune straight from World War II. Next could be Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, one of the other current bands, or a cutting-edge new composition by one of the Senators. No matter what the genre, the Jazz Senators present every tune with a twist you will hear from no other band anywhere.
Bandleader Norm Wallen is one of the most prolific and most-performed composer/arrangers in the Northwest. Norm holds a Master of Arts in Composition from Central Washington University, and has performed with a virtual Who’s Who of professional entertainers and musicians. His music has been performed on all seven continents (including Antarctica); at jazz festivals worldwide, numerous educational conferences, and every International Association for Jazz Education convention since 1985.
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