SHOUT SECTION BIG BAND, Tatum's Swingin' Session!!!

For the past 18 years, trumpeter and music educator Brett Dean has been the toast of Chicago, leading his continuously gigging 18-piece Shout Section Big Band through a vast repertoire drawn from big band swing, Great American Songbook standards and decades of pop songs, bringing the classic music alive for rapturous crowds throughout Chicagoland and the Greater Midwest.

As per its unique title – a sly wink to Frank’s 1961 album Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!!! – the ensemble’s fifth album Tatum’s Swingin’ Session!!! is a special one, a grand showcase for the popular, retro-dynamic singer Tatum Langley, a member of the band for several years. Though a large handful of the charts were created by the SSBB’s trumpeter John Dorhauer, the majority of the selections, from the barn burning swirl through the Diane Schuur classic “Deedle’s Blues” through the high spirited joy of “Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” (the pepped up train tune that earned Johnny Mercer his first Oscar), feature the original arrangements by legends like Frank Foster, Frank DeVol, Jon Harpin, Buddy Bregman and Shorty Rogers.

Langley, who’s toured globally with Postmodern Jukebox, is the perfect, emotionally transcendent match for this incredible wealth of material, singing and scatting to her heart’s delight while leading a journey that mines the magic of Cole Porter (“Ridin’ High”), Peggy Lee (“That’s My Style,” “All The Cats Join In,” “You’ve Come A Long Way From St. Louis”) and Arnett Cobb (“Smooth Sailing”). One of Dorhauer’s freshest arrangements is “Sing,” an irresistible, era-blending mashup of the Dresden Dolls’ darkly poetic cabaret song and the Carpenters’ cheery 70’s singalong. Hopefully, there’s more in the repertoire to grace us in the future with a second swingin’ session by Langley and the shouters!