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Fat Cat Big Band

The Fat Cat Big Band is a musical pride of eleven lions in their own fields, fueled by the dynamic creative leadership of guitarist, composer, and arranger Jade Synstelien.

Synstelien was born on August 17th, 1974, in Minneapolis. A musician, composer, arranger, and band leader, Jade picked up the alto sax at age eleven but traded it for a guitar at thirteen. He grew up traveling and living all over the United States, and has worked as a professional musician since the age of fifteen, he has become well-versed in all styles of musical performance. Synstelien began composing when he was 13 and by 17 was scoring music for big bands, funk and dance bands, world beat, and reggae bands, and eventually large-scale symphonic jazz works. Ready to form the band that could execute any ideas he could compose, he strove to combine tradition with innovation and offer up something that musicians and audiences would love equally.

In June of 2001 Jade moved to New York City from Taos, NM, yearning to learn from the jazz elders and living legends and to finally form this new orchestra. Mitch Borden, owner of the historic Smalls club, gave Jade the opportunity to have a place to form, rehearse, and perform with his band. The result was a steady Tuesday night gig at his new offshoot club, Fat Cat, in September 2001, originally billed as The Staring into the Sun Orchestra.

After many gigs and years of developing the band and filling it with the greatest rising talent in New York, in 2006 Synstelien renamed his orchestra The Fat Cat Big Band, which performs exclusively his original compositions and arrangements in full swinging force every Sunday evening to this day.

Jade has the singular goal of bringing American musical heritage to the people of the U.S., to spread the understanding and pride in our major cultural contribution to the world. Jazz and all the music born of the jazz tradition is the truest example of real equality and unification for all people of the earth.

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221
Album Review

Fat Cat Big Band: Face

Read "Face" reviewed by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio


Face is an album with layers. Each of the ten tracks offers a nuanced explication of anticipation, heartbreak and spirituality. The glistening veneer of giddiness and celebration is attractive and reviving. But if you listen closely, there's also yearning and loneliness and a grasping for spiritual fulfillment. The entire album is soulful in the way some popular, accessible poets are soulful--you respond viscerally to the beauty of the art and only careful revisits will teach you how to appreciate it ...

362
Album Review

Fat Cat Big Band: Face

Read "Face" reviewed by Edward Blanco


The house band of New York's Fat Cat jazz club in the West Village, The Fat Cat Big Band, finally delivers the last piece of its trilogy project. Face is produced from a 2008, two-night recording session of thirty-one original charts, from which the group's first two albums--Meditations On the War For Whose Great God is the Most High / You Are God (Smalls, 2009) and Angels Praying for Freedom (Smalls, 2009)--were released simultaneously. The eleven-member light ensemble, the brainchild ...

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133

Radio

Fat Cat Big Band's Face is Chartbound at JazzWeek

Fat Cat Big Band's Face is Chartbound at JazzWeek

Source: Kari-On Productions

LATEST RELEASE(s) For Jade Synstelien Face is the product of years of reflection on unification and the end of war and suffering through music. A highly talented and uniquely gifted young composer, Synstelien has immersed himself in the traditions of jazz and world music while developing an irrepressible individuality in his compositions and performance. Bathed in originality and melody, this CD is the final installment of the trilogy recorded at Clinton Recording Studios in New York City.

PERSONNEL Jade Synstelien ...

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Award / Grant

David Adler List's Fat Cat Big Band as Top Ensemble for 2009

David Adler List's Fat Cat Big Band as Top Ensemble for 2009

Source: Kari-On Productions

With the release of Fat Cat Big Band's new CD; FACE, Fat Cat Big Band continues to be noticed by the industry and fans. David R. Adler names Fat Cat Big Band in his Top 25 of 2009, plus list, in the large ensemble category. For Jade Synstelien Face is the product of years of reflection on unification and the end of war and suffering through music. A highly talented and uniquely gifted young composer, Synstelien has immersed himself in ...

144

Recording

Fat Cat Big Band to Release Third Album in Debut Trilogy in October

Fat Cat Big Band to Release Third Album in Debut Trilogy in October

Source: All About Jazz

After the simultaneous release of the first two records in the Fat Cat Big Band's debut trilogy in March 2009 Angels Praying for Freedom & Meditations on the War For Whose Great God is the Most High / You Are God [Smalls Records], Jade Synstelien and his 11-piece band are preparing to release the third record in October, entitled Face (Smalls).

Face,as well as the previous two albums will be distributed globally by Allegro Media (Late Set Records in Japan), ...

"What makes a great big band record? … Is it the writing, arranging, or performance? In the case of the Fat Cat Big Band, the answer is yes, yes, and yes."
Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com

"This has to be one of the best, and one of the hippest big bands out there today."
Grego Applegate Edwards

"With strong writing, lush arrangements, some humor and some political venting ... Synstelien and crew definitely know how a modern, innovative big band should sound." Mike Shanley, Jazz Times

"These two releases should establish Synstelien as a significant writer and the Fat Cat Big Band as one of the most refreshing groups to come along in years."
Duck Baker, All About Jazz

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Face

Smalls Records
2010

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Face

Megaphone Records
2009

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Angels Praying For...

Megaphone Records
2008

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