Sean Nelson +
New London
Big Band
New album coming April 2025!
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Guest artist Wayne Bergeron (trumpet) with Sean Nelson (trombone) at the Garde Arts Center, August 2023.
Social Hour!
Led by trombonist and composer Sean Nelson, the New London Big Band brings an eclectic mix of Count Basie inspired swing, world music influences, and some unorthodox instruments - ever heard electric trombone? Social Hour! is the band’s theme song and an homage to the band’s regular performance spot, The Social Bar + Kitchen in New London, Connecticut. Available now via MAMA Records.
Birdland Jazz Club
CD release concert for a sold out audience on June 19, 2022
Regular shows at the Social
New London, CT
The band plays one Wednesday a month at our home base, the Social Bar + Kitchen in New London. See our calendar for the next time we play, or sign up for our email list so you don't miss it!
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6:30-9:00PM. Tickets required.
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Meet up with friends, have some dinner, enjoy one of the 50 beers on tap, and cut a rug on the dance floor!
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208 Bank Street, New London, CT
(860) 442-6900​​
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Schedule: The band will perform two hour-long sets (6:30-7:30pm and 8:00-9:00pm).
Tickets: In order to provide you the best service possible, we have two seating times for this show, 5:45pm and 6:15pm. Choose the ticket based on the time you'd like to be seated. We ask that you please arrive at the seating time on your ticket, so that we may give you proper service.​​
About the band
Sean Nelson's New London Big Band
17 piece jazz orchestra
Led by trombonist and composer Sean Nelson, the New London Big Band is a "full bodied and polished brassy big band" (Jazz Weekly) made up of 17 of the finest musicians in New England. Formed in 2016, they play monthly to sold out crowds at the Social Bar + Kitchen in New London, where they attract professional and amateur dancers from near and far.
Their album, Social Hour, released ​to critical acclaim ​on Summit Records, is “a smartly swinging young crew…their beat can’t be beat​,​ and they know and show that swing is the thing.” (Midwest Record) The album received airplay globally and charted on the jazz radio charts. The band performed an album release concert for a sold out audience at the famed Birdland Jazz Club.
The band wants to show the world that big band jazz is a vibrant and joyful sound that is not just for jazz aficionados. "Nelson...has assembled a youthful, sharp, hip 17-piece ensemble as dedicated as he is to the belief that big band sounds can provide a fine musical experience — one best served up live, where the groove and excitement of the arrangements and instrumental interplay can energize and pack a dance floor across generations." (The Day of New London)
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