Carnegie Hall

A native New Yorker, George Gee always loved music. He grew up with rock ’n’ roll and R&B, but in his teens, he also developed a powerful passion for jazz—especially the big band styles of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, and other legends. At renowned Stuyvesant High School, Mr. Gee played the bass in the school’s jazz band, where he demonstrated an early flair for showmanship.

This passion continued into his first year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He created a big band music hour for the school’s radio station; off the air, he often spoke of his true longtime dream: leading his own big band. It’s easy to imagine this idea would not be readily accepted by college students in the early 1980s, but in fact, Mr. Gee and his show were a huge hit!

The station manager asked him to interview Count Basie before a campus concert in 1979. This inspiring conversation changed Mr. Gee’s life: The very next day, he reached out to fellow jazz players to create a 17-piece big band, which quickly became a darling of the campus community.

After spending a decade in Pittsburgh honing his craft, Mr. Gee returned to his hometown of New York in 1990 just in time to continue his big band aspirations. As fate would have it, swing and big band jazz unexpectedly (to everyone else) became a cultural phenomenon sweeping across the country and world! Swing dancing and music became the rage among a younger audience and a generation nostalgic for it. With a wink and a nod, Mr. Gee held court weekly at New York City swing jazz nightspot Swing 46 in Times Square, where a quarter-century later, he and his band still dominate the Big Apple big band scene!