afterward. According to John, an hour of rehearsal can easily take three hours from your schedule. Holding online Jamulus sessions involving 17 musicians had its drawbacks as well. Using tech- nology and the Internet came with inherent milliseconds of de- lays in getting data from one spot to another. “When you played a note, everyone else heard that note up
Today, Big Bandemic works with more than 550 arrangements, involving over 9,300 parts and well over 23,000 pages of sheet music, all in PDFs the musicians read on tablets. As for how the band came up with their iconic name, “What else would you call a ‘big band’ that started in the middle of a pandemic?” laughs John. Big Bandemic has two concerts this December that feature Denise Pelley at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre and an afternoon performance at the Aeolian Hall, Sunday, February 16, featuring renowned pianist and arranger Mark Payne. Big Bandemic’s periodically hosts “pay what you want” fundraising concerts as well. For more information on where you can see Big Bandemic play and how to get tickets, visit www.bigbandemic.ca. Photos courtesy of Big Bandemic
John Thompson doing a solo
to 50 milliseconds later,” John explains. “It doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re used to playing in sync with everyone, it’s hard to ignore what sounds like someone slowing down. Every- one tended to slow down to match the tempo they thought they were hearing.” One way the group adjusted was to invest in a MIDI drum machine. The drum machine ignored everyone’s “slowness” and plowed ahead on its programmed tempo. “That allowed everyone else to follow the drum machine for tempo and the whole piece didn’t slow down. It still sounded a little chaotic, but it was better than playing by yourself,” John adds. By July 2021 the lockdown was easing, and in-person gatherings were happening again. The group that John and Karl had brought together enjoyed the extensive library of fun swing big band charts they’d been playing, and most decided to continue rehearsing together in person.
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