Russ Anxiter's Hippie Big Band

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Russ Anxiter's Hippie Big Band •

Russ Anixter’s Hippie Big Band

For Russ Anixter, putting this band of all-stars together has been a lifelong dream!

Russ, a composition and arranging student of jazz great Manny Albam, has been a fixture in the NYC music scene for the last 30 years as a music copyist and arranger preparing music for large jazz ensembles, orchestras, studio recordings, musical theater, and Radio City Christmas. 

Russ’ arrangements for this eclectic 11 piece ensemble include music by Miles Davis, Weather Report, The Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix along with jazz and funk classics fusing together disparate styles; sometimes within the same arrangement.

The Hippie Big Band is composed of NYC’s finest studio, jazz and Broadway musicians. Collectively band members have played with diverse artists such as Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, They Might Be Giants, Levon Helm, Natalie Cole, Bruce Springsteen, Blood Sweat And Tears, Aretha Franklin, David Byrne, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, Donald Fagan, Boz Scaggs, John Scofield, Toshiko Akiyoshi, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, The Gil Evans Orchestra, The NYC Ballet, The NY Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolomite!

The band’s performances include playing to enthusiastic audiences at NY’s Bitter End, Chelsea Table and Stage, The Cutting Room, and a concert in the Central Park Bandshell.

Press Kit

HIPPIE BIG BAND ORIGINS

Since my teenage years I’ve been divided by my music interests, and the Hippie Big Band has allowed me to find my voice combining all of my musical experiences.

I grew up in San Francisco during the 1960s, and was attracted to bands like the Grateful Dead, Santana, and other bands that incorporated improvisation and blues into their music. I didn’t understand the improvisation at that time, but I know I liked something about it. At the same time I was learning to play trombone, and finding myself drawn to jazz. Big Bands in particular. In college, and after graduating, I played trombone in big bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, listened to a lot of jazz, but still had that love for rock music that included elements of improvisation. It wasn’t until much later that I’d heard that Miles Davis once described the Grateful Dead as a jazz band that plays rock.

Graduate school at the Manhattan School had me studying jazz composition and arranging with the great Manny Album. I started writing traditional and contemporary big band music, and on a lark I did an arrangement of a Jimi Hendrix song for a big band.  Something about that spoke to me, and with encouragement I arranged several Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin songs for big band. The arrangements were performed in concert and in New York clubs to some acclaim; however, at that point I got very busy as a music copyist in New York City. I eventually opened my own music copying office preparing music at a very high level. While I did manage to compose a few things over the next few years, my own writing projects pretty much became less of a priority.

  • "The Hippie Big Band rocks! Great arrangements, great tunes, great playing - what more could you want. Russ Anixter has created something special here - the big band has never sounded so groovy!”

    Doug Besterman, Music producer, Tony Award Winning Orchestrator

  • “Russ knows all that stuff I don’t know.”

    Geoff Muldaur, American musician, singer, composer. Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Paul Butterfield’s Better Days

  • “Russ' "Hippie Big Band" is a rock and roll Jazz orchestra party that never ceases to amaze me with its incredible musicianship, and cleverly raucous reimagining of some absolute classic tunes.”

    Charlie Rosen, Tony winning orchestrator, Grammy winning arranger and leader of the 8-Bit Big Band

  • “Grateful Dead music has shown itself to be immortal in many ways - not just in their recorded legacy, the ongoing work of its founders, and a nationwide network of tribute bands, but also in its adaptability to a variety of musical styles and settings. Russell Anixter’s Hippie Big Band is a delightful example!”

    David Gans, Music journalist, musician, songwriter, and host of SiriusXM’s Tales from the Golden Road

  • “I love the Hippie Big band concept! Russ took some classic guitar music material and turned it into unique big band arrangements. It's a lot of fun to play and to listen to, very well done Russ!”

    Oz Noy, Guitarist, composer, bandleader, recording artist

  • “Arranging is a misunderstood and underappreciated art. Van Dyke Parks told me "arrangers are the janitors of the music business"...Jelly Roll Morton referred to "this peculiar form of mathematics and harmony that is strange to all the world"... still some people are called... Russ is an arranger with the most important gift...a point of view... he is also highly skilled in orchestration and understands how important it is to have the right players, and giving them the freedom to make the music come alive. Of course every arranger must have great music to arrange... and Russ has chosen some classic American music to put his pencil on...and shine a new light on these songs... thats why its called "arranging".....I'm not sure about the name Hippie Big Band though....it's not really that big”

    Steven Bernstein, Trumpeter, slide trumpeter, arranger/composer, and bandleader. Lounge Lizards, Spanish Fly, Sex Mob, Millennial Territory Orchestra

  • “Russ Anixter knows how to get the most out of his Hippie Big Band – his arrangements are laden with groove, history and soul, and give the band a power and resonance far beyond what you’d expect from eleven players!"

    Scott Healy, Keyboardist, composer. Conan O’Brien’s Basic Cable Band. Host ASMAC’s monthly Big Band Webshow

  • "... your great use of sectional contrasts, extremely creative and varied orchestration, creative and very interesting voicings, harmonic sophistication, writing with the individual players in mind, grooves often central to a composition…Russ, please complete this list. And I’d love to speak with you about this at some point."

    Stan Harrison, Woodwind player, composer, Hippie Big Band member.