About the Band

Moondust Big Band was established in 2007 in the footsteps of the Charlie Lyle Big Band to preserve and continue a long tradition of providing great live, fully instrumented Big Band and Swing music in the Tennessee Valley.  Moondust plays traditional Big Band music mainly from the late 1930s through the mid 1960s along with some current contemporary Jazz Orchestra music. 

Vocalists Dave McConnell and Criss Ashwell provide a special touch to Moondust by singing classic material from Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, and other greats.  The band excels at classic Big Band material from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and many other favorites.  Contemporary material includes music from the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Bob Mintzer, and others at the forefront of writing and arranging for this wonderful genre of music. 

The Moondust Big Band library also includes original material and hand-written arrangements that are irreplaceable and not available anywhere else.  Moondust Big Band focuses on high-quality musical performances with style and artistic sensibility.  Moondust delivers this with full command of a dynamic range from a whisper to a wallop and everything in between.  Many of Moondust Big Band’s members are professional or semi-professional musicians.  With full 16-piece instrumentation, an extensive library of the very best arrangements and two outstanding vocalists, the overall effect of Moondust Big Band simply can’t be replicated by so-called “mini” Big Bands.