Dan Pugach and Allison Rumley Bring New Takes on Big Band Jazz to the Avram Theater

When most people think of big bands, names like Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington come to mind as the leaders of large ensembles. Though it’s typically thought of as an antiquated genre in an ever-changing musical landscape, some musicians have kept the big band spirit alive by adding new twists and musical flavors.

Among those musicians in this new wave of big band innovators are Dan Pugach and Allison Rumley. Pugach is a Grammy Award-winning drummer known for his nonet and 18-piece bands that push the boundaries of what big band music can be. Rumley is a singer who fronts Big Beat Big Band, a group that introduces funk and soul into their big band sound.

On Thursday, May 29, they’ll be joining forces as Rumley performs with Pugach’s 18-piece big band at the Avram Theater on Stony Brook Southampton’s campus for the second concert of “The Jazz Loft @ Southampton” concert series.

Born in Israel, Pugach started as a rock drummer before being introduced to jazz when he was 15. Listening to drummers like Mel Lewis and genres like bebop inspired him to pursue jazz as his genre of choice moving forward.

Pugach came to the United States in 2006 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts at Berklee College of Music in Boston before heading to New York for his Master of Arts at City College of New York. When he got to the Big Apple, he immediately noticed how much broader New York’s jazz scene was compared to Boston’s, as there were more independently-existing jazz circles in New York instead of the greater overlap he found in Boston.

“Many people are very focused on their expertise, which is something I experienced when I moved to New York,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I realized I can’t be everything, I just have to focus and be one or two things.”

Not wanting to wait by the phone hoping for gigs to come to him, he started composing and arranging music to create opportunities for himself. While he was attending City College, professor Mike Holober prompted Pugach to write a chart for a nine-piece ensemble. While writing that, he realized that he had a knack for arranging, and liked that it was a way for him to step outside of the drums and grow more as a musician.

From there, Pugach began leading his own groups, first a nonet and then the larger 18-piece band. In this role, he’s responsible for writing and arranging music, organizing rehearsals, cueing the band during performances and managing the logistics that go into keeping the group together. Though he admitted that doing everything can be challenging, the reward of playing his own music and arrangements makes it all worth it, especially as a drummer.

“As drummers, we don’t like being told how to play, no matter if you’re right or wrong,” he said with a laugh. “The reason why we play drums is so we can express ourselves and feel safe behind a drum set.”

Though big bands are typically associated with swing music, Pugach emphasized that neither of his groups are swing bands. Instead, his work has focused on “new and original music by myself, living composers or other artists who inspire me,” noting that he draws from “Brazilian composers, pop, folk and anything that I grew up listening to” in his writing and arranging. He has arranged popular songs such as Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Van Halen’s “Dreams” for his groups, adapting them into a jazz setting. He also discussed how he doesn’t like to think of music through just the lens of the big band genre.

“I’m still focused on small-group playing,” he explained. “I don’t want the big band to sound like a huge, Buddy Rich-type thing, I try to make it feel like it’s one organic band that operates like a small band features in the individuals in it.”

One of the highlights of his career is winning the Grammy Award for Best Large Ensemble Jazz album in 2025 for his album “Bianca Reimagined: Music for Paws and Persistence.” The album was inspired by his old dog Bianca, a pitbull that he and his wife and musical collaborator Nicole Zuraitis rescued. Pugach and Zuraitis started rescuing pitbulls when they met, saying that “Pitbulls need a voice and need help, there were too many of them that were found stray.”

When Bianca died after owning her for eight years, Pugach wrote a song for her that he brought to the BMI Jazz Composer workshop in 2019. There, he arranged it and won an award for it, which inspired him to bring it to the full band. With the song “Bianca” as its centerpiece, the album’s themes expanded to dog rescue and advocating for dogs.

Allison Rumley was first introduced to big band while attending William Paterson University in New Jersey, but didn’t fully embrace it until 2014 when her friend, and eventual husband, Caleb Rumley approached her about singing with his group, Big Beat Big Band. Though she had never performed with an ensemble that large, joining the group “turned into a journey that has really elevated my songwriting style and also enabled me to become an arranger as well.”

The band extensively incorporates funk into its music and has covered artists like Stevie Wonder, Thundercat and Daft Punk. As one of the group’s primary arrangers, Rumley works with her husband to take these songs and figure out new spins on them.

“It’s all about listening to the song and really trying to get the essence of it,” she said in a recent phone interview. “Caleb and I will go back and forth, sometimes we’ll scat along to see where the horns fit. Sometimes, I may have a completely new idea of trying it in a different meter or with a different groove.”

One of the challenges she faced when she joined the group was finding balance with the horn section, which typically dominates big band music. Oftentimes, she follows what the horn players are doing and scat along with that. She noted that singing with a large has ensemble has “definitely opened up my eyes to the things I can do with my voice or my melody.”

Dan Pugach and Allison Rumley perform at the Avram Theater on Thursday, May 29, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $36 for general admission ($33 for seniors/faculty and staff, $18 for Stony Brook University students). Visit stonybrook.edu/southampton/avram/jazz-loft-series to purchase. The Avram Theater is at 39 Tuckahoe Road in Southampton.