The Dave Dickey Big Band is a 18 member professional jazz big band featuring the top jazz musicians from St Louis, Edwardsville, and Springfield, and Champaign. Many of the band members are also top music and jazz educators teaching at schools such as University of Missouri - St Louis, Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, University of Missouri - Columbia, Webster University, Southwest Missouri State University, University of Illinois - Champaign, and public schools in the area. The Dave Dickey Big Band features music performed by big band greats such as Count Basie, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, Duke Ellington, Terry Gibbs Dreamband, and many others. The band also performs music of some of the top contemporary composers today, including original compositions and arrangements from members in the Dave Dickey Big Band.
Between 2007-2010 Dave Dickey Big Band was located in Champaign - Urbana, IL while Dave lived there and attended graduate school at the University of Illinois. That band featured U of I faculty (Chip McNeil, Jim Pugh, Chip Stephens, Tito Carrillo, Dana Hall, Jeff Grubbs, and Larry Gray), trumpet great Jeff Helgesen, and U of Illinois graduate students.