The Frost Studio Jazz Band (SJB), under the direction of Etienne Charles, is an outstanding group of Frost School of Music instrumentalists that perform classic big band repertoire as well as compositions and arrangements by their own members and preeminent artists on the jazz scene today. They are the recipients of multiple DownBeat Graduate College Outstanding Performance Awards in the Large Ensemble category and perform extensively throughout South Florida and at major conferences and venues throughout the United States. Recent guest artists include pianists Bruce Hornsby, Danilo Pérez, Fred Sturm, Cyrille Aimée, and the great jazz vocalists Patti Austin, and Jon Secada. The group often explores exciting new musical territory, such as arrangements of Radiohead songs transformed for jazz band, and the music of modern jazz composers such as Maria Schneider, Florian Ross, Jim McNeely, and Bob Brookmeyer. The Frost SJB was selected as one of the finalists in the 2018 Next Generation Jazz Festival and performed the first-ever live performance of Henry Mancini’s soundtrack to the classic movie The Pink Panther.
