Jeff Meegan & David Tobin Release a Classic Big Band Record
- R.A.G.
- Aug 15, 2025
- 3 min read
An outstanding and stylish new release from Jeff Meegan and David Tobin brings back an era of music that I have missed for ages. Their new release is a full album of eight tracks that bring back a classic, swinging, big band crooner style, and they pull it off amazingly.
The Keep On Movin' album features a full ensemble of incredible tracks with all the instrumentation you could imagine from a vintage and classic big band style approach. Loads of horns, live percussion, upright bass, everything is original, and everything is right there in the moment.
There are no samples done on this record. This is an album that is arranged by Callum Au, who has worked with such artists as Michael Bublé and Quincy Jones, just to name a few.
This is a heavy hitter, and each track on it is right up in your face with everything from lyrics to performances, vocally and instrumentally, completely capturing the big band era of music perfectly.
Now, although there are a ton of classic influences throughout this record, they managed to bring in a bit of freshness as well, and the production helps nail that aesthetic down.
Tracks like "On Top Of The World", which features Steve Memmolo, grab you with that jazzy, big band, swing drum beat, amazing orchestration, and these smooth and silky vocals that are animated and just have this beautiful approach and aesthetic to them.
This whole release captures the perfect big band approach so incredibly well that it gave me bouts of nostalgia.
When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle, along with my parents themselves, were all kind of obsessed with artists like Frank Sinatra, the whole Rat Pack, all that stuff.
Later on, my mom got into Harry Connick Jr and listening to this album right here, right now, makes me feel the same way I did listening to those \classics.
They nailed down the essence of what their influences meant to them and put a lot of effort and time, energy, and work into keeping that aesthetic alive and making it sound completely natural with this gorgeous flow.
It's so enthralling to listen to a record like this. It gives me a certain kind of excitement because all those horns and that big band sound, it's so alive.
This is a genre of music that never felt boring. It's always been sort of intense in different ways. After a big chorus, you have a bigger instrumental swing jam that happens, and this is the era of musical hooks.
The big band era. That golden age of music that posted loads of musical and melodic hooks coming from the instruments, not just the vocals.
This record is something I've been waiting for without even realizing it.
"Keep On Movin'", the title track, is a total Banger that brings in an outstanding Jazz approach with a rhythm and delivery that draws you in but still rolls forward. I love that smooth, snapping Jazz feel. This one features Sarah Niemietz on the vocals, and she is absolute perfection.
All in all, Jeff Meegan and David Tobin set out to write and release something special. Something that means a lot to them. A love letter to an Era of music that a lot of us grew up with.
Aside from the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, this was the cool stuff.
There were the rock bands, and there were the big bands. The Rat Pack was just as cool, or maybe even cooler than the Rolling Stones were.
They were all on that same level.
I absolutely adore how Jeff and David set out to accomplish something and did an unbelievable job portraying the aesthetic they wanted to.
If you're a fan of any big band, the golden era of swing, anything like that, you will fall right in love with this record because all of that is wrapped up beautifully here with performances throughout it that are simply outstanding.
I wish I could go see this live right now.
At any rate, take a listen to this record because it's not like anything you've heard in a long time.
See how it makes you feel. If you're my age, I think it will give you some outstanding little bouts of nostalgia as well.
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