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Establishment
Web Site
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Beginning in 1970, a
diverse array of Nashville musicians who had in common an
abiding love of big band music came together to form an
ensemble devoted to capturing the rhythmic sounds of the
Forties and Fifties. Today, this well-rehearsed and
highly skilled 20-piece band is in demand
throughout the Mid-South.
Professional in every sense of the work, the band is made
up of doctors, lawyers, academicians, corporate
executives, and entrepreneurs, as well as
professional musicians. The Establishment regularly packs
hotels and clubs with audiences that love danceable,
soft-muted brass, and stirs college proms with a driving,
all-out beat. Wherever they play, from society balls to
music-hall concerts, their big band sound draws applause
and cheers and shouts of praise.
With an extensive repertoire of the great music made
famous by the bands of Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Count
Basie, Harry James and others, The Establishment was for
eight years the band in demand at the Opryland Hotel's big New Years Eve
Gala, and was featured on the Big Band Cruise of the showboat General Jackson.
Three rhythm players, five reeds and ten brass comprise
the band which was founded by Del Sawyer, Dean Emeritus of
Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music. In April 1998, Del handed
over the baton to the current leader, Billy Adair. Vocals are handled by the
talented Liz Johnson and Eric Stein with arrangements
skillfully crafted by Mr. Adair.
A non-profit organization, The Establishment generates
scholarships for musically talented children to receive
individualized instruction at
Blair School of Music and
at the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School.
Though the band works only for the love of music and the
support of a new generation of musicians, it is in no
sense an amateur group. Each new member is carefully
auditioned and shares the band's commitment to rigorous
weekly rehearsals. Devotion and skill are the trademark
of The Establishment, a musical organization that
represents professionalism at its best.
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