The story of Novel Jazz

Novel Jazz is a group of Maine-based musicians with over two centuries of collective musical experience performing swinging jazz from the Great American Songbook.  The year 2026 marks the 22nd anniversary of the Septet.  They specifically focus on the great works of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, ranked as two of America’s all-time finest composers, and not just within the jazz genre!  Using historic recordings, plus regular trips to the Duke Ellington Collection at the Smithsonian Museum as well as the Strayhorn Collection at the Library of Congress,  Washington, D.C., Novel Jazz has collected and arranged selected works from the several-thousand-composition repertoire of these two prolific composers. Concerts include both the music plus the rich history behind each piece... literally the very foundations that made jazz what it is today.  Their audience includes jazz lovers of all ages, dancers, classical music enthusiasts, big band/traditional  jazz lovers, people interested in the history of jazz, and church congregations (they now include a show of Ellington’s sacred music).  They've performed hundreds of shows around New England: opera houses, clubs, concert halls, churches and live performances on Public Radio (four in all).     A description of their CDs can be found here.  In their videos on this site,   you can hear clips of recorded music by Novel Jazz.  They’d love to perform for your next concert, dance event, sacred service or whatever!  Contact Barney Balch at 'Noveljazz "at" gmail dot com' for more information.