Igor Kogan’s LA Big Band — Winter Holiday Special

Igor Kogan’s LA Big Band brings its Winter Holiday Special to Catalina Jazz Club as a 17-piece jazz orchestra led by composer, arranger and bassist Igor Kogan. The program gives seasonal material new big-band settings, moving from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and traditional Hanukkah songs to Christmas classics. Rather than a standard holiday-song run-through, the evening is built around fresh arrangements that join jazz and classical influences in a full orchestra sound. The listed lineup does not name the individual musicians, though the band is described as featuring Los Angeles jazz players.

Based in Los Angeles, Kogan’s ensemble is a contemporary jazz orchestra made up of what its own materials call a “younger generation of LA’s jazz musicians.” Its original music draws on jazz, funk and rock, while the group describes its approach as “forward-looking and individual” but accessible. Jazz writer Scott Yanow called the band “obviously well-rehearsed” and “impressive,” recommending it to listeners drawn to modern jazz orchestras. Kogan’s wider credits include work with Plas Johnson, Anat Cohen, Valery Ponomarev and Maya Avraham, plus a 2024 tour with the Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra and a performance in Sarah Brightman’s Christmas Symphony production.