Subject: Re: Sgt Pepper
You really up on all those Big Bands and Swing Orchestras?

The big names, yes.

When I was a teenager I couldn't stand big band music, or jazz in general. Then I learned to play the guitar, expanded my musical horizons and came to appreciate the great music of the first half of the 20th century.

Today I play in a small jazz combo, mostly playing standards from the Great American Songbook. Improvising over those tunes is so much more challenging and interesting than the rock and blues I grew up playing and still play sometimes today.