Our Story
Bath Community Big Band started life in 2000 as an extracurricular activity at Bath University - named BUBBA - and it was open to Bath University students and members of the community. After a few years, we moved to Bath Spa University and changed our name to Bath Community Big Band. The band has been administered very efficiently in the past by Jo Sercombe and Trish Brown, but at present Ralf Dorrell - the musical director throughout the entire life of the band - has also taken on the administrative role. In recent years the band has been independent of either university and now rehearses weekly in Odd Down, Bath.
The band performs in public at least once a term, usually to raise money for charity or for local "good causes". (If you think that the band could support your charity or fundraising event, please contact us to discuss it.)
The band is intended to be as inclusive as possible. There are no auditions (apart from the rhythm section - and only here for the practical reason that the band will only function properly with one drummer, one bass player, one guitarist and one pianist) so if you are interested in playing with us just come along... We have parts for trumpet, trombone and saxophone (alto, tenor and baritone) players, but if you play something else, and we can accommodate you, we will.
We also encourage budding composers and arrangers to use the band as a test bed for their new works, so several players also write music for the band. The rest of the repertoire is a wide spectrum of music written and arranged for big bands over the last 90 years, ranging in difficulty from quite easy to (a few) very difficult pieces (chosen to provide a challenge for everyone in the band). 99% of the music is notated but there is the option for players to improvise solos (but only if this is something that interests you).