Indigenous Big Band

Indigenous jazz musicians, ensembles, and big bands have their place in the contemporary jazz world as well as in jazz history. There were small ensembles and big bands on reservations across the US in the first half of the Twentieth Century and several Indigenous musicians who ascended to celebrity with jazz as their medium. From time immemorial, songs have been the vessels of stories and lessons for the Indigenous people of the Americas. The goals of the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band are to celebrate and continue that tradition, to compose and perform new music inspired by traditional backgrounds, and to create a community of likeminded peoples from all backgrounds to uplift the next generation of Indigenous jazz musicians.