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Band Bio and Noble Statement of Purpose

Ben Baldwin and the Big Note played their first gig at a Wesleyan University frat party. A rotating mirror ball threw a myriad of colored dots on each dancing couple.

There was laughter, cocktails, romance...

Many more frat parties, wedding receptions, smoky bars, day care benefits, proms, political fundraisers, clambakes, ‘big’ concerts, and other tribal rituals later, Ben Baldwin and The Big Note powers on, into the new millennium!

Ben Baldwin and the Big Note play a unique brand of swing and rock-and-roll, music for dancing, created by the likes of Fats Waller, Louie Jordan, Sam Cooke, Cole Porter, Ray Charles, and The Band.

Like the R&B territory bands of the forties, Ben Baldwin and The Big Note plays primarily on the Seacoast and Eastern New England. We sometimes venture forth to New York, Ohio, even Florida to spread our musical message. We were the house band at the Cape Neddick Lobster Pound, long ago. We rocked The Rosa in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and The Tam in Brookline, Massachusetts in those days.

This century, The Big Note has been playing many wedding receptions, out-of-control garage dances, and barn jamborees.

Ben Baldwin and The Big Note can be a rockin’ little jazz quartet or a powerhouse 6-piece band, as budgetary or artistic considerations require.

Front: Kent Allyn and Ben Baldwin
Back: Ray Brunelle, Jesse Williams, Gordon Beadle and Bobby Keys

I love Ben Baldwin. He combines the best combination of New Orleans blues, classic rock and easy jazz so that a diverse crowd of 20-year-olds and 80-year-olds all tap their toes to the cool beat if they're not up dancing by the end of the evening.

I have a restaurant in Maine and I have had Ben Baldwin play for at least a dozen of my Dinner Dance Parties which we do in the off-season. Our restaurant is one large room and the band is right there on the floor and it is never overbearing. People can dine comfortably and if they choose to dance he can turn up the tempo and the mood in an instant. It is fun, it is cool, they can sing and they can jam. Great sounds from what I think is great talent, and Ben is a great guy who is entertaining and wonderful to work with.

He made our New Year's Eve a spectacular event.

Kate Morency, Owner
Pier 77 Restaurant
Cape Porpoise, Maine
207-967-8500