Pete Cater Big Band – The Great Drum Show

BIG BAND SUNDAY LUNCHES
AT DEAN ST

Sunday March 30

Pete Cater Big Band
– The Great Drum Show

Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, Soho, London

Making their debut in our Big Band Sunday Lunchtime series at Dean Street,

we welcome one of the all-time great jazz drummers, Pete Cater with his 16-piece ensemble.

All the best popular music that emerged in the twentieth century has one unifying, compelling feature. The beat!

In this brand-new concert package, British and world drum star Pete Cater –(well known to Dean Street audiences for his key role with the Simon Spillett Big Band), brings together his drumming magic, with a high energy, exciting performance featuring his 16-piece Big Band

In the days before electric guitars achieved global domination there was a golden era of jazz and big bands, and the biggest star instrumentalists of this age were the drummers. Starting with legendary figures including Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Jo Jones, and followed in later years by Joe Morello, Art Blakey, Shelly Manne, Mel Lewis, Sonny Payne and so many others, these drummers were bona fide stars of music. They generated the all-important, era-defining ‘swing’ as well as being show-stopping, star soloists in their own right.

Then everything changed with drummers sitting at the back between banks of guitar amplifiers.

In this Big Band Sunday Lunchtime concert at Dean Street, the drums are back out front. The Great Drum Show celebrates not only the greatest hits of the greatest hitters of this golden age, but also includes the all-important ‘groove’, the hallmark of more modern times.

The Great Drum Show features a wonderfully eclectic, wide-ranging repertoire, including new arrangements of classic tunes plus historic scores performed exactly as the composers intended. From Ellington and Basie, via Buddy Rich, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis, to more modern compositions from the likes of The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Steely Dan.

Here’s Pete Cater leading his big band in a great arrangement of “Bugle Boy Rag.”