Atlanta Swing Orchestra - A site for Big Band, Jazz Band and Swing Band Music.

Greg McLean

​​

Greg McLean (b.1956), trumpeter, composer and arranger, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.  He began trumpet at the age of nine and in high school really developed an interest for jazz and composition.

 

McLean received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education (1979) from Georgia State University and then attended Florida State University where he received a Masters of Music (1982) with a major in music composition.  After several years of freelancing in Atlanta as a trumpet player and arranger, McLean attended the well known music school of North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) where he studied composition and jazz (1985-86).

 

Since leaving Texas McLean has had a varied musical career with stops in Baltimore, MD as cornetist for the Peabody Ragtime Ensemble and a stint freelancing in Orlando, FL.  In 1987 McLean relocated to Atlanta where he is currently Associate Professor of Music at Georgia Perimeter College, directing the GPC Jazz Ensemble and teaching courses in: music appreciation, jazz history, music theory, composition and applied trumpet.

 

Greg McLean remains one of Atlanta's most versatile musicians.  Greg has toured overseas with Hotlanta Dixieland Jazz band, including Europe six times, the Singapore Arts Festival and a tour of Poland and Russia in 1996.  As a composer, McLean has written three pieces for The Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet.  His piece Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, written for the ASO Brass and piano, was aired during a live broadcast of  NPR’s Performance Today during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

 

Several of McLean’s compositions have also been performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the National Trumpet Competition, and the annual Trumpet Festival of the Southeast.  His concerto for two trumpets, The Twain Have Met, was composed for jazz great Marvin Stamm, and premiered in 2008 at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville).  In April 2011 Stamm premiered Twain, re-orchestrated for wind ensemble, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania with IUP Professor of Trumpet, Dr. Kevin Eisensmith.

 

As a trumpet player, McLean performs in all musical genres, but enjoys the expressive freedom of jazz.  He leads G-Force Jazz band, a straight-ahead group, which features some of Atlanta’s finest jazz band musicians  Their debut CD, Cabin Fever, is available on iTunes and Amazon.com.  McLean has appeared on over thirty CD’s as trumpet player, composer and/or arranger.