Why Jim McNeely Mattered (1949-2025)

Jim McNeely, an imaginative big band composer-arranger and pianist whose works told a cohesive story, were swinging and often were expansive in terms of the instrumental landscape they covered, died on September 26 of bile duct cancer. He was 76.

I last posted on McNeely in 2018 about his new album at the time Barefoot Dancers and Other Visions here. I also interviewed him for The Wall Street Journal in 2013 when he was the musical director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop here.

Born in 1949 in Chicago, McNeely studied at the University of Illinois and moved to New York in 1975, when only a few big bands were still moderately popular and relevant—one led by Maynard Ferguson, another by Buddy Rich and a third by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.

McNeely joined the latter orchestra on piano in 1978 and remained for six years. By then it was known as the Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (and now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). From 1981 to 1985, he composed and played piano with the Stan Getz Quartet before moving on to the Phil Wood Quintet in 1990.

In 1998, with acoustic big bands all but gone in the U.S., McNeely became the chief conductor of the DR Big Band in Copenhagen, Denmark. Starting in 2011, he was chief conductor of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt, Germany, and worked with many of Europe’s most prestigious jazz musicians and orchestras.

Here are 10 clips plus a bonus that powerfully showcase McNeely’s playing, arranging and conducting:

Here’s McNeely conducting Germany’s WDR Big Band playing his Don’t Even Ask…

Here’s McNeely on piano with trumpeter Ted Curson, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Steve McCall playing ‘Round Midnight in 1976…

Here’s McNeely’s first leadership album, The Plot Thickens, recorded in 1979…

Here’s McNeely playing piano behind singer Ann Marie Moss singing Baltimore Oriole in 1980…

Here’s McNeely on piano with Stan Getz (ts), Chet Baker (tp), George Mraz (b) and Victor Lewis (d) performing Dear Old Stockholm in 1983…

Here’s McNeely’s imaginative arrangement of Blue Note from the 1985 album 20 Years At the Village Vanguard: The Mel Lewis Orchestra…

Here’s McNeely on piano behind singer Jackie Paris, singing Nobody Else But Me, with Mike Richmond (b) and Keith Copeland (d) in 1988…

Here’s McNeely’s nifty arrangement of In the Mood for the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band in 1995…

Here’s McNeely’s arrangement of Waltz for Debby, from Play Bill Evans: The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra & Jim McNeely, with Nikolaj Bentzon on piano…

Here’s McNeely conducting the Frankfurt Radio Big Band playing his arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s Up From the Skies in 2022…

Bonus: Here’s McNeely conducting his last album, Primal Colors, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in 2024…