The Boulevard Big band

On a Monday night in 1988 at a club called the Actor's Ensemble on Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, seventeen musicians gathered for the first time as a group. Trumpet player Michael McGraw organized these players to give area musicians an outlet to play big band jazz in a club setting on a regular basis. That night as the band played the music of Basie, Herman, Kenton, and others to a packed house of enthusiastic music lovers, the Boulevard Big Band was born.

In the last 19 years the band has come a long way. They have performed throughout Kansas City at venues ranging from the Plaza to the Ballet Ball to the Harrah's Casino New Year's Eve bash. On New Year's Eve, 1999, they played at the Millennium party at the capital building in Topeka, performing for guests including the governor and his wife. In the fall of 2000 they were featured in concert with the State Ballet of Missouri in a piece choreograph to their music. They have performed twice at the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival and were the only big band ever invited to the Glen Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, to perform anything other than Glen Miller's music. They have performed with guest artists Eric Marianthal, Bob Kindred, Bobby Watson, Pete Christlieb, John McNeill, Pat La Barbara, Frank Mantooth, Karrin Allyson, and Kevin Mahogony.

The Boulevard Big Band carries the sound of big band jazz throughout the heartland as part of the Kansas Arts Commission touring program. They have recorded two compact discs for the critically acclaimed Sea Breeze Jazz record label.

The discs have received rave reviews from jazz publications in Europe, Japan, Canada and the U.S. Their CDs have been included on playlists of jazz radio stations from Los Angeles to New York.

he Boulevard Big Band has finished working on their third CD, "Take Only For Pain", and is working on a fourth recording, to be released in the summer of 2006. The band continues to keep big band music alive, performing every Tuesday night at Harling's Upstairs at Westport Road and Main in Kansas City, Missouri.