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Mike Vax

The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra & The Mike Vax Big Band

Is there anyone crazy enough to lead one big band, let alone two? The answer is yes, he’s Mike Vax! Mike is the Director of The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra (MVJO), and The Mike Vax Big Band (MVBB).

The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra The current MVJO (formerly the New Oakland Jazz Orchestra) is made up of musicians from many of the most famous big bands, such as: Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Duke Ellington, Clark Terry, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Cab Calloway, Ray McKinley, and Tex Beneke. These musicians are some of the finest to reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Mike Vax Big Band The Mike Vax Big Band features alumni from the 1952 - 1978 Stan Kenton Orchestra. The Band performs some of the well known music of the Stan Kenton Orchestra; plus keeping with Stan’s insistence on not just performing nostalgia type music, it also performs fresh new material written in the Kenton style, as well as original material written by members of the Band. The MVBB is not trying to be the “Stan Kenton Orchestra,” but is carrying on his tradition of dedication to creative music, and to jazz education. The Band tours around the United States every other year.

Leader Mike Vax is a product of the City of Oakland, California and the Oakland Public Schools, having graduated from Oakland High School in 1960. He has led a big band off and on since his days at College of the Pacific over 35 years ago. A few of his credits include being first trumpet, soloist and road manager of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, as well as being co-leader while Mr. Kenton was recovering from surgery; leading the Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans; producing and/or music directing for over 25 jazz festivals; and performing workshops for more than 1000 high schools, colleges and universities all over the world. He is currently a National Artist for The Getzen Musical Instrument Company.

Friends of Big Band Jazz is the support group for MVJO and MVBB. This nonprofit corporation has sent students to summer jazz camps on scholarships, donated funds to the Oakland Youth Orchestra, and raised money for Oakland Parks and Recreation and supports the Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund with proceeds from its CDs, Alternate Route, BIGBANDJAZZ.NET, LIVE...On The Road and latest release Next Stop, LIVE On The Road.

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Catching Up With

Mike Vax: Getting Vaxinated

Read "Mike Vax: Getting Vaxinated" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Mike Vax has one of the shortest surnames in jazz music—he's “tied" with Tommy Vig and Jack Six for that honor. However, those familiar with his activities as a well-respected lead trumpeter and soloist with Stan Kenton, a stalwart member of the famous Dukes of Dixieland, the leader and man behind the annual tour of the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, and as an ardent proponent of jazz education know that what the name Vax lacks in length, Vax delivers in ...

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Album Review

Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra: Flyin' Through Florida

Read "Flyin' Through Florida" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The number of jazz-centered big bands “on the road" these days can be counted on the fingers of one hand with a digit or two to spare. The Glenn Miller and Count Basie orchestras remain randomly active, the Duke Ellington and Woody Herman progeny somewhat less so. As for the rest . . . R.I.P. Stan Kenton, another pillar of the Big Band Era, made it clear he wanted no “ghost band" touring and playing his music long after he ...

5
Album Review

The Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra: Storming Through the South

Read "Storming Through the South" reviewed by Jack Bowers


First, three hearty cheers and a laurel wreath for trumpeter Mike Vax who has kept the splendid Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra together (with some inescapable changes in personnel, not to mention name) for twenty-five years, supervised no less than eighteen annual road tours and produced half a dozen in-concert albums, the most recent of which, Storming Through the South, was recorded during the orchestra's spring excursion in 2015 --sixteen cities in seventeen days covering Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma. ...

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Extended Analysis

Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Road Scholars

Read "Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Road Scholars" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Road Scholars? A clever title indeed, but these gentlemen (and three ladies) are more akin to “road maestros," an appraisal that is abundantly clear from A to Z on this latest recording by trumpeter Mike Vax's turbo-charged Stan Kenton Alumni Band, taped at various concerts during the band's 2013 spring tour, a two-week, three-thousand-mile odyssey that encompassed a dozen concerts in six states and the District of Columbia. About four thousand people were lucky enough to see and hear the ...

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Extended Analysis

Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band Will Travel

Read "Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band Will Travel" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band Will Travel Summit Records 2010

In the golden era of television, the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a popular Western series titled Have Gun Will Travel. It starred Richard Boone as the San Francisco-based Paladin, a dressed all in black (but good guy), cowboy private eye. This gunslinger scoured the West righting wrongs and besting opponents with his intelligence and lightning fast pistol draw. ...

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Extended Analysis

Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band, Will Travel (Live)

Read "Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band, Will Travel (Live)" reviewed by Robert J. Robbins


Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band, Will Travel (Live) Summit Records 2010

For over two decades, trumpeter Mike Vax, a veteran of the 1970-72 Stan Kenton Orchestra, has been a tireless crusader maintaining the legacy of his erstwhile boss, who died at age 67 in 1979. Have Band, Will Travel (Live) is the Stan Kenton Alumni Band's fourth recording for the Summit label. It maintains the ensemble's commitment to Kenton not only through music ...

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Album Review

Mike Vax Big Band: Sounds From The Road

Read "Sounds From The Road" reviewed by Marcia Hillman


Featuring no less than a dozen alumni from the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Mike Vax's Big Band displays the drive and spirit of the musical organization that crisscrossed the country from the 1940s. All of the essentials of the Kenton sound are here. A tight and smooth sax section is heard on the opening “Alex's Tune." “La Virgen de la Macarena," the song played at bullfights, has a searing trumpet performance by the leader. There is an easygoing ...

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Music Industry

Stan Kenton Legacy Band Emanates From Kenton Alumni Band

Stan Kenton Legacy Band Emanates From Kenton Alumni Band

Source: Ed Bride Associates

PRESCOTT, AZ — After a storied 23-year history of performances, tours, and educational clinics, The Stan Kenton Alumni Band will now be known as The Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Acknowledging the passage of time, the new name better reflects the band’s desire to continue the musical and educational legacy that Stan Kenton worked so hard to present, while striving to reach younger audiences as well as older fans. When Kenton died in 1979, his will prohibited the establishment of a ...

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Festival

10th Annual Prescott Jazz Summit, August 27-29, 2010

10th Annual Prescott Jazz Summit, August 27-29, 2010

Source: Patricia Myers

The Prescott Jazz Summit in Prescott, Arizona, will mark its 10th year by presenting musicians from California and Arizona during the three-day weekend of events in concert halls, theaters and outdoors. The event was conceived and is organized by Mike Vax, former Stan Kenton Orchestra trumpeter. The festival is a benefit with net proceeds going to the Clare Willey Memorial Scholarship Fund and Prescott school music departments, said Vax, who continues to lead and tour with the Kenton Alumni. A ...

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Performance / Tour

Central PA Friends of Jazz Present Mike Vax Big Band on April 26th at 6PM

Central PA Friends of Jazz Present Mike Vax Big Band on April 26th at 6PM

Source: All About Jazz

The Mike Vax Big Band, Featuring Alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra Presented by the Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz (CPFJ) on Sunday, April 26th. All concerts held at 6p.m. at The Hilton Harrisburg located at 1 North 2nd Street, Harrisburg PA 17101. Phone: 717-233-6000 The Mike Vax Big Band-Featuring Alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra Opening at 5pm: The NorthernHigh School Jazz Band, Joe Nebistinsky, Director. Tickets for this event are $28 for General Adult Admission and $25 for ...

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Festival

Prescott Jazz Summit is Annual Festival in Northern Arizona

Prescott Jazz Summit is Annual Festival in Northern Arizona

Source: All About Jazz

By Patricia Myers

The annual Prescott Jazz Summit, August 22-24, has the theme “A Jazz Party of the First Order" and will be staged in northern Arizona's cool, pine-studded mountain region. Events will be indoors and on historic Courthouse Square, site of the original state capital, a two-hour drive from the Phoenix airport.

“The festival will feature a mix of California and Arizona jazz musicians, including former Stan Kenton Orchestra members," said coordinator Mike Vax, a trumpeter and Kenton band ...

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