The backbone of a band is its music library. The Upbeat Swing Orchestra is extremely fortunate and honored to be the conservator of the John "Fergo" Ferguson Music Library.
"Fergo" was an Australian big band leader, composer, and arranger. When Fergo wanted his big band to play a song, he did not locate and purchase a chart. Instead, he went to a friend who is an avid record collector with tens of thousands of records in his collection. (The friend uses the collection to host a radio show in Australia.) The friend would provide Fergo with a recording of the most popular version of the song, often on the original 78 RPM record. Fergo would then repeatedly play the record, and listening carefully, transcribe the chart as accurately as possible.
There are also a good number of charts in the library based on actual scores obtained by Fergo during the Big Band Era. These scores are currently undergoing restoration and preservation.
The John "Fergo" Ferguson Music Library is one of the most accurate collections of big band era music.
The library contains about 450 transcriptions and adaptations of hits from the following artists: