Early 1930’s is the time of the Great Depression in the United States. It started with the stock exchange crisis in 1929, and one of the devastating consequences was disbanding of quite a few jazz big bands. Only more dance oriented orchestras survived. But it was the time when jazz as a style made serious progress: the “negro” music was refined, and sold with the sticker “swing”. That’s how numerous big orchestras, or, in this case, big bands, appeared to great public acclaim. The orchestra of the King of Swing, Benny Goodman, was one of the most popular.

Iconic examples of big bands of the Swing era were orchestras with Afro-American musicians, Count Basie and Duke Ellington’s bands in the first place. Saxophone, non-existent in the early jazz, becomes the leader. Coleman Hawkins (of Fletcher Henderson orchestra fame) and Lester Young (from Basie’s band) are most notable among a great number of high-level musicians. To certain extent, the two men can be regarded as opposite poles of jazz. It was during the Swing Era that jazz became really popular, when virtually everyone was jazz fan – first in America, then in Europe.

Narrator Mikhail Mitropolsky is the most famous and oldest Russian jazz critic, and a member of the international The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA). Mitropolsky has been studying jazz and beyond for nerly 50 years now! He is a radio presenter, writer, and lecturer.

Maxim Piganov’s Trombone Show project performs greatest hit of the Era, arranged by its leader. The band was founded by slide trombone player Piganov in 2007. This is the only collective in the world that consists of four trombones and rhythm group. Famous Russian jazzman Anatoly Kroll penned the name – he simply loved the light power of the newborn band. Today, the Trombone Show is one of the most in-demand jazz ensembles here in this country. Debut album “What a Wonderful World” was released in 2009.

Several conceptual programmes have been prepared by the band. “Tribute to New Orleans” is jazz of 1920-30’s; “Jazz from Phonograph” is dedicated to Leonid Outyosov, one of the founding fathers of Russian jazz; “Non-standard standards” is jazz of 1940-60’s; among other sets are “From Dixieland to Jazz-Rock”, “Russian Folk Jazz”, “Jazz, Movie, and Fantasy”. The characteristic feature of the Trombone Show is its unique combination of orchestra sound with the manner in which 1930’s combos played. A special programme is prepared exclusively for the lecture-concert about the Swing Era.