Gold.

Does anyone know of any good "progressive" or "experimental" big band albums?

Do you mean "big band" as in swing music or just in terms of large jazz ensembles?

In terms of experimental jazz, I only know of one big band - the Globe Unity Orchestra. I'm not as familiar with this sub-genre of jazz, so if anyone knows of any others, please enlighten us :). I find that the best progressive/experimental jazz music is done by smaller groups or soloists. Check some of these out anyways and see what you like.

Globe Unity Orchestra - Drunken in the Morning Sunrise


Django Bates - Interval Song


Sun Ra - Ancient Aethiopia


More artists are listed in this article: Avant-garde jazz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was just going to come back and post some Sun Ra but I see Burning Down beat me to it. :)

Well anyway I thought this was pretty entertaining video:




Also, Charlie Haden's album Liberation Music Orchestra might fit the bill. It's a pretty fantastic album.

I also like Sun Ra's album Space Probe, and especially the 18 minute masterpiece that is the title track. He recorded it by himself with just a Mini-Moog synthesizer. However, I heard somewhere that this record is no longer in print...

"The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix"

A recommendation for the recommendation thread

Lloyd Miller

I can tell im going to be on a Pinetop Perkins kick for a while.