Bandleader

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a

jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music.[1]
Most bandleaders are also performers with their own band, either as singers or as instrumentalists, playing an instrument such as electric guitar, piano, or other instruments.

Roles

The bandleader must have a variety of musical skills. A bandleader needs to be a music director who chooses the "setlist" (the list of songs that will be played in a show), sets the tempo for each song and starts each song (often by "counting in"), leads the start of new sections of songs (e.g., signalling for the start of a

sound recording
sessions. Some bandleaders are also composers and songwriters for their group.

Often the bands are named after their bandleaders, or the

The Count Basie Orchestra have continued operating under their bandleaders' names long after the death of the original bandleader.[1]

See also

Further reading

  • Whiteman, Paul and Lieber, Leslie – How to Be a Bandleader (New York City: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1948)

References