bandleader

English

Alternative forms

• band leader

Etymology

From band +‎ leader.

Noun

bandleader (plural bandleaders)

1. A musician who conducts or leads a band of musicians.

   Synonym: conductor

   • 2010 July 9, J. David Goodman, “Of Local History and Hepcats”, in New York Times City Room‎^[1]:

     Before Brooklyn became the World Historical Hipster Hub, there were the Hepsters of Harlem. And well before there was an Urban Dictionary for every last nuance of non-standard English, the bandleader and amateur linguist Cab Calloway cataloged some of the unique speech of the 1930s and ’40s in his Hepster’s Dictionary.

   • 2024 May 1, Marcus J. Moore, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Jazz Bass”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     By and large back then, bassists weren’t bandleaders; Mingus was an anomaly.

Translations

musician who leads a band of musicians

• Czech: kapelník (cs) m
• Dutch: bandleider (nl) m
• Greek: αρχιμουσικός (el) m or f (archimousikós)