One O'Clock Lab Band is an ensemble of the Jazz Studies division at the
University of North Texas College of Music in
Denton, Texas
Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...
. Since the 1970s, the band's albums have received seven
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
nominations, including two for ''Lab 2009''.
The One O'Clock Lab Band is the highest of seven lab bands at the college. The band is named for its hour of rehearsal and includes five saxophones, five trumpets, five trombones, violin, guitar, piano, bass, drum set, and voice.
The One O'Clock band evolved from an extracurricular stage band founded in 1927 into a curricular laboratory dance band in 1947 when North Texas began its jazz degree program.
History
Beginning in 1927, faculty member
Floyd Graham began directing and emceeing Saturday night stage shows at North Texas State Teachers College, planning the programs and holding auditions every Saturday afternoon for prospective entertainers. As early as 1923,
WBAP in Fort Worth broadcast a nationally syndicated show of the stage band on Friday nights.
These performances were directed by James Willis Smith, professor of mathematics at North Texas from 1908 to 1927. Students in the Stage Band included
Ann Sheridan,
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on a film career, estab ...
,
Louise Tobin, actress
Nancy Jane Gates,
and the Moonbeams.
"Lab Band" is the shortened form of "Laboratory Dance Band", a name given by founding director
Gene Hall in 1946. "Laboratory" suggested experimenting in different configurations: band, choir, orchestra, chamber groups, and keyboard and guitar ensembles. During the 1960s, the word "dance" was removed to reflect an interest in different kinds of big band music, and "One O'Clock" was added by
Leon Breeden. The academic degree Dance Band remained until 1978, when it was renamed Jazz Education, then Jazz Studies in 1981. When Breeden became band director in 1959, there were four lab bands, and they were called "units": One O'Clock, Two O'Clock, Three O'Clock, and Five O'Clock. The Two O'Clock was the premier band,
known as Laboratory Dance Band A.
The Aces band was directed by Floyd Graham. The band evolved out of the Saturday Night Stage Shows that were presented weekly from 1927 to 1961. Every year from 1962 to 1970 the Aces traveled and performed with other acts for civic organizations, veterans' hospitals, on WFAA radio, and at military bases in Texas.
Willis Conover
Willis Clark Conover, Jr. (December 18, 1920 – May 17, 1996) was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and televisi ...
, jazz host on
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...
, broadcast six nights a week to an audience that, at the peak of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, was estimated to be 30 million regular listeners in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
and the former
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
— and as many as 100 million worldwide.
Conover, who had heard the One O'Clock Lab Band several times, including as judge at the 1960 Notre Dame Jazz Festival (when
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
was on the festival's board), asked
Leon Breeden, in 1967, for recordings of certain numbers. Later that year, Conover featured the One O'Clock Lab Band in an hour broadcast to an estimated audience of 40 million.
Every year thereafter, the One O'Clock supplied a professional quality studio engineered album to Conover.
Major tours, festivals, concerts
Under the direction of Gene Hall
* 1952 – Awarded Fifth Place in a nationwide contest for the best college dance band
* Spring 1956 – "The Five Front Combo," an 8-member group (directed by Gene Hall) from the Lab Bands, appeared on NBC's Steve Allen The Tonight Show broadcast from Fort Worth
* Nov 23, 1958, 7 to 7:30 PM – Under the direction of Gene Hall performed the region's first live stereo broadcast (from Fort Worth), using two microphones, one to KFJZ-TV (Channel 11) and one to KFJZ radio 1270 AM. The producers instructed listeners to turn on both their radio and TV and place them eight feet apart. The band performed seven arrangements (stage manager, Jack Harris; broadcast producer, Buddy Turner)
* 1959 – Awarded Third Place in a contest among 183 bands for Best New Dance Band of 1959 sponsored by the American Federation of Musicians and the National Ballroom Operators Association, reaching the finals on May 11, 1959, at Roseland Dance City in New York City. It was the only college band of the final field of four.
A Los Angeles group – the Claude Gordon Orchestra (with North Texas ex-student Cecil Hill in the saxophone section) – won First Place.
Under the direction of Leon Breeden
* Summer 1960 – Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival; the Lab Band was Awarded Finest Jazz Group and Best Big Band and Marv Stamm was awarded best instrumentalist and trumpet player.
* Aug 14-28, 1960 – The Lab Band was the demonstration band at the Stan Kenton National Band Camp at Indiana University
* Summer 1961 – Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival; the Lab Band was Awarded Finest Jazz Group and Best Big Band; Morgan Powell won Most Promising Trombone Award. Outstanding Soloists Awards given to Tom Wirtel, Trumpet; Toby Guynn, Bass; and Don Gililland, Guitar.
* Summer 1962 – Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival
* 1967 – Concert tour of Mexico, sponsored by the US State Department Office of Cultural Presentations.
* June 27, 1967 – After a 30-day concert tour, the One O'Clock Performed at a White House dinner for President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson and the King and Queen of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016) and Queen Sirikit (born 1932).
In 2003, the University of North Texas awarded His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand an Honorary Doctorate in Music. During the White House performance, Duke Ellington performed with the One O'Clock, playing "Take the A Train"
Stan Getz also performed with the One O'Clock at the White House.
* Summer 1970 – Served as the official Big Band of the Montreux Jazz Festival in June, the One O'Clock performed throughout Europe during a three-week concert tour.
* Summer 1973 – Serving again as the official Jazz Internatale Demonstration Big Band of the Montreux Jazz Festival, the One O'Clock toured from July 2 to July 24, performing in Vienna and Munich.
* December 9, 1973 – At the request of Tony Bennett, the One performed with him in a live telecast from San Antonio
* Fall 1974 – In an experiment that enjoyed success, The One O'Clock Lab Band entered into a three-month contract to be the weekend (Fri-Sun) house band at a Dallas dinner club, which was part of an 11-leveled discothèque owned by Ronald Jackie Monesson (1930–1995) called "Oz" at 5429 LBJ Freeway. What amounted to a full scholarship, Lab Band members were paid slightly above union wages.
* 1976 June 3-July 8 – The One O'Clock Lab Band toured the Soviet Union (Moscow, Volgograd, and Yerevan), Portugal, and England — 5 cities, 25 concerts, 77 encores, 82,800 people. The tour was sponsored by the US Department of State as part of a US Bicentennial goodwill arts outreach. NBC broadcast the One O'Clock's July 4 Concert live from Moscow as part of its US Bicentennial commemorative. While on tour, members of the band held jam sessions with musicians from Moscow, Volgograd, and Yerevan. Breeden submitted to Soviet authorities a list of 96 arrangements, with descriptions, representing 10 hours of music intended for two-hour concerts. Without explanation, Soviet censorship, Soviet censors strictly prohibited two arrangements, ''St. Thomas (song), St. Thomas'' (by Sonny Rollins, arranged by Gene Glover) and ''Mi Burrito'' (by Raymond Harry Brown). Without announcing the names of the arrangements, the band played both pieces during its July 4 NBC satellite broadcast without incident.
The tour came at the request of a visitor from the Kremlin who had been treated to four performances intended to exemplify US excellence in the arts – first the Metropolitan Opera, then the rock group Chicago (band), Chicago, then a ballet company, then the One O'Clock.
While the One O'Clock performed in Soviet cities where no American cultural group had performed, they were met by fans who knew the band from broadcasts by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Willis Conover, jazz host on Voice of America, was a judge at the 1960 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival in 1960. The tour group included the first woman band member, Bev Dahlke (now Dahlke-Smith) (baritone sax).
* Summer 1977 – Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, SC; the One O'Clock Lab Band, Phil Woods, Louie Bellson, Urbie Green, and Johnny Helms were the performers invited to perform jazz at first-ever Spoleto festival in the Americas.
Since its 1958 founding in Italy by Gian Carlo Menotti, jazz had never been performed at a Spoleto event. Since its US spinoff debut in 1977 – Spoleto USA – jazz has played an integral role in what has become the largest performing arts festival in the Americas, dwarfing its Old World parent.
* Summer 1978 – Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, SC
* Summer 1979 – Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, SC; the One O'Clock received featured billing along with Buddy Rich, Phil Woods, and Woody Herman
Under the direction of Neil Slater
* Summer 1996 – The One O'Clock performed during a three-week tour of Japan and spent a week in Hong Kong.
* July 2008 – The One O'Clock performed at major jazz festivals in western Europe, including the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and the Umbria Jazz Festival, in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. The tour also included performances at venues in Brienz, Switzerland, Vienne, Isère, Vienne, France, and Rüdesheim am Rhein, Rüdesheim, Germany.
Under the direction of Steve Wiest
*March 2009 – The One O'Clock performed at
Birdland, New York. This was the One O'Clock's New York debut under the direction of Steve Wiest.
*July 2009 – The One O'Clock performed at the World Saxophone Congress XV in Bangkok, Thailand with
James Carter and UNT alumnus Brad Leali
*January and February 2010 – The University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band toured California while attending the
52nd Annual Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares P ...
, where the album ''Lab 2009'' was nominated for
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Directors
Notable alumni
1924-1937 – Stage Band, Dance Band, Pit Orchestra; 1937-1949 – The Aces of Collegeland
*
Herb Ellis (1921–2010)
*
Eugene Hall (1913–1993)
*
William F. Lee III
*
William Ennis Thomson
William Ennis Thomson (May 24, 1927 – May 17, 2019) was an American music educator at the collegiate level, music theorist, composer, former Music School Dean and professor at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California from ...
1947-1959 – Laboratory Dance Bands
*
Jack Alexander
*
Larry Austin
*
Harry Babasin (1921–1988)
*
Euel Box
Euel Box (December 31, 1928 – February 28, 2017) was an American music producer, composer, arranger, and trumpeter who wrote major film scores and radio jingles for major markets.
Early years College
Box was born in Georgetown, Texas. He studie ...
*
Herb Ellis
*
Jimmy Giuffre
James Peter Giuffre (, ; April 26, 1921 – April 24, 2008) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating f ...
(1921–2008)
*
Bob Hames
Robert Earl Hames (January 22, 1920 – September 6, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist from Texas who played with the dance orchestras of Jan Garber, Orrin Tucker, and Stan Keller. In the early 1950s he was a staff guitarist for live product ...
*
William F. Lee III
*
Jack Petersen
*
Gene Roland (1921–1982)
*
Ed Summerlin (1928–2006)
*
William Ennis Thomson
William Ennis Thomson (May 24, 1927 – May 17, 2019) was an American music educator at the collegiate level, music theorist, composer, former Music School Dean and professor at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California from ...
1959–1969 One O'Clock Lab Band
*
Dee Barton (1937–2001)
*
David Breeden (1946–2005)
*
Bruce Fowler
*
James A. Hall
*
Billy Harper
*
David Hungate
David Hungate (born August 5, 1948) is an American retired bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his ...
*
Tom "Bones" Malone
*
Lou Marini
Louis Eugene Marini Jr. (born May 13, 1945), known as "Blue Lou" Marini, is an American saxophonist, arranger, and composer. He is best known for his work in jazz, rock, blues, and soul music, as well as his association with The Blues Brother ...
*
Dean Parks
Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Parks has one Grammy nomination.
Albums
Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los A ...
*
Jim Riggs
*
Jay Saunders
*
Ed Soph
*
Marvin Stamm
Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter.
Career
Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One ...
*
Bill Stapleton (1945–1984)
*
Lanny Steele (1933–1994)
* Galen Jeter
1970s
* Ashley Alexander (1934–1988)
*
Bob Belden
*
Leonard Candelaria
*
James Chirillo
*
Steve Duke
*
Conrad Herwig
*
Marc Johnson
*
Bubba Kolb
*
Lyle Mays
Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awar ...
*
Jim Milne
*
John B. Riley
*
Ray Sasaki
*
Mike Smith
*
David Stockburger (tenor saxophonist)
*
Bill Stapleton (1945–1984)
*
Frederick I. Sturm
*Jim Powell
*Wayne Feschuk
*Bev Dahlke
*Greg Smith
*Bill Yeager
*Pat Coil
*Clay Jenkins
*Gerard Carelli
*John Bryant
*Barry Ries
*Rick Cornish
*Lou Fischer
1980s
*
Gregg Bissonette
Gregg Bissonette (born June 9, 1959) is an American jazz and rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. Bissonette is known for playing and recording many different styles of m ...
*
Matt Bissonette
*
Mike Bogle
*
Zachary Breaux
*
Frank David Greene
*
Earl Harvin
Earl Harvin is an American drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and is now residing in Berlin, Germany.
Harvin studied at the University of North Texas College of MusicEnsoulment.html" ...
*
Dave Pietro
*
Tim Ries
* Stefan Karlsson
*
Jim Snidero
James J. Snidero (born May 29, 1958, in Redwood City, California, United States) is an American jazz saxophonist.
Performance career
Snidero grew up in the Washington, D.C., area (Camp Springs, MD), studying with Jim Murphy, Ron Diehl, Tim Eyerma ...
*
Steve Wiest
*
Mike Williams
*
Brad Turner (musician)
*Randy Hamm
1990s
*
Tom Brantley
*
Scott Englebright
*
Ari Hoenig
*
Lee Tomboulian
*
Frank Basile
*
Joseph Henson
*
Luis Hernandez
*
Michael Waldrop
*Tyler Kuebler
*Bob Swanson
2000s
* Chris McQueen
* Michael D'Angelo
2010s
* Addison Frei
* Drew Zaremba
* Matt Young
* John Sturino
* Nolan Byrd
*
Sergio Pamies
* Joshua Kauffman
* Connor Kent
* Brian Horton
* Nick Owsik
* Henry Beal
Student & faculty composers/arrangers for the One O'Clock (non-members)
* 1950:
Fisher Tull
* 1960s:
Frank Mantooth
* 1970s:
Rich Matteson
Rich A. Matteson, (born Richmond Albert Matteson, January 12, 1929, Forest Lake, Minnesota – June 24, 1993, Jacksonville, Florida) was an American jazz artist and collegiate music educator who specialized in the euphonium. He played the tuba in ...
, Charles Gambetta
Discography
* ''Denton Jazz Festival" as Laboratory Dance Band (Columbia Transcriptions, 1956)
* ''North Texas Lab Band'' (90th Floor, 1961)
* ''LAB '67!'' (NTSU Jazz, 1967)
* ''Lab '68'' (Precision, 1968)
* ''Fall '69 Big Band Concert'' (NTSU Jazz, 1969)
* ''Lab '69'' (Century, 1969)
* ''Lab '70!'' (Century, 1970)
* ''Annual Spring Concert of the Lab Bands, April 14, 1970'' (Century, 1970)
* ''Fall '70/Spring '71'' (NTSU Jazz, 1971)
* ''Lab '71'' (NTSU Jazz, 1971)
* ''12 by 3'' (Creative Jazz Composers, 1971)
* ''Live! the North Texas Lab Bands, Fall and Spring Concerts, 1970/1971'' (Precision, 1971)
* ''Lab 72'' (Precision, 1972)
* ''Early Tracks by John Monaghan'' (NTSU Jazz, 1972)
* ''Live '72/'73'' (NTSU Jazz, 1972)
* ''Lab '73'' (NTSU Jazz, 1973)
* ''Live!'' (Precision, 1973)
* ''Lab '74!'' (Precision, 1974)
* ''Lab '75'' (NTSU Jazz, 1975)
* ''A Jazz Clinic by Leon Breeden'' (Crest, 1975)
* ''Lab '76'' (NTSU Jazz, 1976)
* ''Lab '77'' (NTSU Jazz, 1977)
* ''Lab '78!'' (NTSU Jazz, 1978)
* ''Texas Music Educators Association Silver'' (Crest, 1979)
* ''Jazz at Spoleto '77'' (Left Bank Jazz Society, 1978)
* ''Lab 79'' (NTSU Jazz, 1979)
* ''Lab 80'' (NTSU Jazz, 1980)
* ''Lab '81 Commemorative'' (NTSU Jazz, 1981)
* ''European Tour '82'' (NTSU Jazz, 1982)
* ''Lab 82'' (NTSU Jazz, 1982)
* ''Lab '83'' (NTSU Jazz, 1983)
* ''Lab 84'' (NTSU Jazz, 1984)
* ''Lab 85'' (North Texas, 1985)
* ''Lab 86'' (North Texas Jazz, 1986)
* ''With Respect to Stan'' (North Texas Jazz, 1986)
* ''Live in Australia the 1986 Tour'' (North Texas Jazz, 1987)
* ''Lab 87'' (North Texas Jazz, 1987)
* ''Lab 88'' (North Texas Jazz, 1988)
* ''Lab 89'' (North Texas Jazz, 1989)
* ''Lab 90'' (North Texas Jazz, 1990)
* ''Lab 91'' (North Texas Jazz, 1991)
* ''Lab 92'' (North Texas Jazz, 1992)
* ''Lab '93'' (North Texas Jazz, 1993)
* ''Live in Portugal'' (North Texas Jazz, 1994)
* ''One O'Clock Standard Time'' (North Texas Jazz, 1994)
* ''Lab 94'' (North Texas Jazz, 1994)
* ''Lab 95'' (North Texas Jazz, 1995)
* ''Lab '96'' (North Texas Jazz, 1996)
* ''Lab 97'' (North Texas Jazz, 1997)
* ''Lab '98'' (North Texas Jazz, 1998)
* ''Lab '99'' (North Texas Jazz, 1999)
* ''Lab 2000'' (North Texas Jazz, 2000)
* ''Lab 2001'' (North Texas Jazz, 2001)
* ''Lab 2002'' (North Texas Jazz, 2002)
* ''Lab 2003'' (North Texas Jazz, 2003)
* ''Lab 2004'' (North Texas Jazz, 2004)
* ''Live from Thailand'' (North Texas Jazz, 2004)
* ''Circa 1960'' (90th Floor, 2004)
* ''2004 Midwest Clinic'' (Mark, 2005)
* ''Lab 2005'' (North Texas Jazz, 2005)
* ''Lab 2006'' (North Texas Jazz, 2006)
* ''Lab 2007'' (North Texas Jazz, 2007)
* ''Live at Blues Alley'' (North Texas Jazz, 2007)
* ''Lab 2008'' (North Texas Jazz, 2008)
* ''Lab 2009'' (North Texas Jazz, 2009)
* ''Lab 2010'' (North Texas Jazz, 2010)
* ''Lab 2011'' (North Texas Jazz, 2011)
* ''Lab 2012'' (North Texas Jazz, 2012)
* ''Lab 2013'' (North Texas Jazz, 2013)
* ''Lab 2014'' (North Texas Jazz, 2014)
* ''Lab 2015'' (North Texas Jazz, 2015)
* ''Lab '16'' (North Texas Jazz, 2016)
* ''Lab 2017'' (North Texas Jazz, 2017)
* ''Lab 2018'' (North Texas Jazz, 2018)
* ''Lab 2019'' (North Texas Jazz, 2019)
* ''Lab 2020'' (North Texas Jazz, 2020)
* ''Lab 2021'' (North Texas Jazz, 2021)
* ''Lab 2022'' (North Texas Jazz, 2022)
* ''Lab 2023'' (North Texas Jazz, 2023)
* ''Lab 2024'' (North Texas Jazz, 2024)
References
External links
North Texas Jazz websiteUniversity of North Texas College of MusicTom Boras Scores, 1962-2001Music Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...
Conover Collection at UNT
{{Authority control
Jazz ensembles from Texas
Big bands
Musical groups established in 1947
Swing music
University of North Texas
Musical groups from Denton, Texas
1947 establishments in Texas
Music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...