Rob Parton's JAZZTECH Big Band

Directed by Rob Parton

Rob Parton is well known nationally and internationally for the JAZZTECH Big Band and its six critically acclaimed compact discs’ on the Sea Breeze Jazz label. Parton enjoys assembling some of the finest musicians in Chicago to perform cutting edge big band jazz. The band features regularly the many styles of big band jazz music ranging from Count Basie to Buddy Rich. The JAZZTECH Big Band has performed numerous times at the MidWest Clinic in Chicago, Jazz Unites Tribute to Duke Ellington, numerous collegiate Jazz festivals and professional jazz festivals all over the country.

Rob Parton’s JAZZTECH Big Band founded by Rob Parton in 1984, has been performing and recording in Chicago since 1990. Parton has been assembling top tier musicians to play its music since its inception. The band is modeled after the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra with a bit of the Stan Kenton philosophy added where creating new works for jazz orchestra is the foundation of the bands existence.

Throughout the year Parton hosts college and high school bands to serve as opening acts at their home club FtizGerald’s. This is an excellent opportunity for young aspiring jazz musicians to get a chance to hear a full blown professional big band comprised of some of the finest musicians in the country close up and in person.

The Chicago Tribune has called the JAZZTECH Big Band "one of the best big bands in the country". The Chicago Sun Times characterizes the band with "hard hitting ensemble brightly crafted harmonies and expansive solos". Cadence Magazine reviews the JAZZTECH Big Band as "a band with no discernible weaknesses, one that fairly bristles with vitality and enthusiasm, that reduces even the most formidable charts and demanding unison passages to ho-hum routine".

Rob’s goal for the JAZZTECH Big Band is to promote and commission new arrangements of great jazz standards as well as original compositions by Chicago composers. The JAZZTECH Big Band does not claim to be a repertory band, however music performed by the great road bands from the likes of Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, to Woody Herman will often be played in live concerts.

You can hear Rob Parton's JAZZTECH Big Band regularly at their monthly home FitzGerald's located in Berwyn.

Rob Parton plays custom trumpets built by Wayne Tanbe, Bob Malone and flugelhorn built by Fred Powell. Parton is also an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies for the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University.

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