A Big Band

When Russell Scarbrough ’08E (DMA) puts together a big band, he means BIG.

For his latest album, the director of jazz ensembles at Houghton University and Canisius College brought together 44 musicians, including 20 alumni of the Eastman School of Music, four Rochester faculty members, and a host of other acclaimed musical artists.

The result, Fun Times, was released this summer on Bandcamp.

Recorded remotely over 20 months during the pandemic, the album features 10 tracks that Scarbrough describes as “some of the most fun, adventurous big band music heard in years.”

Eastman alumni featured on the recording include Chris Beaudry ’02E, ’03E (MM), Charlie Carr ’14E (MM), Kirsten Edkins ’05E, Shoghi Hayes ’15E, ’20E (MM), Ethan Helm ’12E, Devin Kelly ’05E (MM), Brendan Lanighan ’15E, Dan Loomis ’04E (MM), Doug O’Connor ’08E (MM), ’12E (DMA), Jeff Ostroski ’08E (MM), Marcelo Magalhães Pinto ’15E (DMA), Jim Pugh ’72E, ’75E (MM), Jared Schonig ’05E, Herb Smith ’91E, Bill Straub ’93E, ’95E (MM), Chris Teal ’09E (MM), Matt Vashlishan ’05E, ’17E (DMA), Scott Worthington ’09E Daniel Wright ’06E, and Chris Ziemba ’08E, ’11E (MM).

Faculty artists include Eastman’s Clay Jenkins, Bob Sneider ’93, and Rich Thompson ’84E (MM),as well as Bill Tiberio from the College’s Satz Department of Music.

To produce the album, Scarbrough asked musicians to record themselves at home and email parts to him.

“Life was rough, and I wanted it to be fun for the musicians, something to look forward to. I think that helped everyone’s performances despite the strained circumstances, and you hear that on the album.”

Scarbrough says making the album was an antidote to the drumbeat of bad news and dark rhetoric of the past few years.

“In the midst of all this, ” he says, “making music was the catalyst for hope.”