USA Projects

In 2007, I had the opportunity to go back to Portugal and lead a Big Band at the Guimaraes Jazz Festival. During the two week long festival, I not only found the music to be fulfilling, I also re-discovered my ability to lead and teach.

Captain Black Big Band has allowed me to feature musicians I may have never featured ordinarily, expose people to the music that may have never heard jazz or a Big Band. When you take a band of 16 people of ALL ages and ethnicities and ask each of them to invite five people to each concert you are bound to have one of the most diverse audiences around. This Big Band has revitalized jazz in Philadelphia during a time that birthed articles about a dying jazz scene. Its residency at Chris’s Jazz Café in Philadelphia created a popular meeting place for ALL people.

Being a musician is not always rewarding but it is a blessing.  Documenting these musicians who are not always heard live or on the radio is important to me and to the history of this music we call Jazz. Arrangers are working, musicians are working, musicians are sharing, teachers are teaching, people are smiling, feet are moving, souls are stirred, and tears may flow when The Captain Black Big Band is performing.  This recording will be a chance to hold all of that in your hand and use it as your cure daily. 

Your support will enable CBBB (as we have been nicknamed) to continue to spread the good news of LOVE, SWING, SOUL, JAZZ and HOPE all over the world!

CBBB will spread the news through live performances, workshops, networking and finally recordings! This is where we need your help. The recording will involve paying musicians, studios, and arrangers. Also making sure the musicians eat, travel safely, and have a place to lay their heads when we are not recording. With over 16 musicians to take care of this can become an expensive task. But we know with the friends, family, and fans we have out there CBBB will record and complete their sophomore CD! 

Thank you for your support in advance!

~Orrin Evans