Joe Giattina Orchestra

The Joe Giattina Orchestra is a Birmingham-based big band which specializes in dinner music, latin & cha-cha dances, waltzes, swing, Dixieland and big-band jazz. The group started in the early 1970s as a 17-piece Shrine band playing free engagements as a community service. Joe Giattina, by then a 50-year veteran of the Birmingham jazz scene, took over as band leader in 1978. From then until 1992 the group took the name of Giattina's earlier outfit, "Joe Giattina and his Bama Cardinals".

When Giattina handed the baton to Don Cornutt on December 31, 1992 the group was renamed The Joe Giattina Orchestra in his honor. He remained close to the band until his death in 1998. The current director is trombonist Bill Jeffries, who assumed leadership in June 1997. The band often accompanied cabaret singer Mary Ogletree (an Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame inductee). Classically-trained singer Emily Herring is now the orchestra's featured vocalist.

Throughout its existence, the Joe Giattina Orchestra has stayed busy playing in Birmingham and surrounding cities for wedding receptions, dance clubs, debutante balls, birthday celebrations, anniversary parties, and at special events for many civic organizations. The orchestra is the featured house band each New Year's Eve in the grand ballroom at The Club on Red Mountain.

Discography

• The Joe Giattina Orchestra. (2002) Still Swinging

External Link

• The Joe Giattina Orchestra official website