The Big Band Sound

I was taking a break from planning my upcoming road trip in Montana when I started flipping through the videos on Facebook. For an ADD guy like me, the short videos are perfect for my attention span, which is measured in nanoseconds.

One of my favorite genres of music is the 1940 Big Band sound. I prefer the instrumentation without lyrics, but there are exceptions, like the Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Boy of Company B.”

I was captured by a video of the WDR Big Band recording the theme song from the old sitcom “The Odd Couple.” Their sound was excellent: crisp, clear, and smooth.

 As I listened, the video panned and highlighted the different sections of the band, and a fresh-to-my-mind idea was birthed. Developing the idea led me to discover what “WDR” stood for. The “WDR” is derived from the West German Broadcasting Corporation, like our National Public Radio. The band was formed in 1947 as a “dance and entertainment orchestra.” Oddly, I never noticed a German accent when I first heard their music. They all looked like North Americans to me, so I assumed they were. The German rendition of the American song I was listening to seemed to be in English to my ear.

Back to my budding thought. As I watched the video, I noticed that every instrument player had a music stand with a large, unfolded paper on it. I didn’t see the print, but from my experience as a tuba player in the Tullahoma High School Marching Band, it was the sheet music for their part to be played.

All the instrument players sat in a curved line. In front of them was a single music stand holding a piece of paper. Behind that stand was a lone man without an instrument. He was obviously in charge of all the players, but he had nothing to do with the actual actions required for the instruments to make their part of the music.

The man in front of the players moved his arms, concentrated on his paper, and occasionally looked in the direction of individual sound-makers. The frontman was more than conspicuous as he was just over the top edge of the noise makers’ paper. The musicians appeared to take little particular notice of the man. Instead, they focused on their piece of paper. Also, I did not even once see a sound-maker look at his neighbor’s piece of paper.

The WDR Big Band music was delightful to my whole being. All the people I observed in the video were doing one action for my ear, but individually, they were each doing something a little different from their neighbor. They each had different training and genealogies but were simultaneously producing a harmonious sound: “The Odd Couple” theme music.

I think families, including church families, were created to do the same thing. Harmony is destroyed when band members each select their preferred sheet music.

Weird sounds are emitted when a player does not keep his instrument tuned, skills sharp, and follow his sheet music. Even stranger things happen when one or all the players entirely disregard the director.

Not one of the players had started the day by walking past a pawn shop. They saw an instrument they liked, purchased it, then walked into the studio, sat down, and began making noise. Thousands of hours of practice and German marks were invested to be considered and selected to be part of the WDR Big Band.

I have two thoughts here. First, God is the composer of our life song! His Son revealed it, and His Spirit directed it. The Bible is the “paper” we need to keep in front of us and intimately need to know.  

Second, it may feel like God is not looking or paying attention to how your life is going, but He is most certainly listening and keeping a rhythm. Our challenge is to adjust our chair to be in full frontal view of His direction. We must continually develop the skills of making appropriate “noise” with our lives. And, though we may each have an occasional solo part, we are not soloists.

I am confident that someday, even today, we will be awestruck by the sound of a beautiful piece of music played before the Creator and wonder just how we came to be a part of such a glorious “Big Band Sound.”

The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the Lord with one voice. They raised their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the Lord: For he is good; his faithful love endures forever.

The temple, the Lord’s temple, was filled with a cloud.

(2 Chronicles 5:13 CSB)

Photo – I think I took this picture in the first half of the 1980s. It is the only picture I found in my pictures that might be connected to a band. Indeed, it is a big band, some might say THE big band, but not a “Big Band.”