Originally Posted by Brekelefuw

I have assembled an octet that plays my arrangements of mostly standard, some originals. It is trumpet, trombone, alto, tenor, bari, piano, bass, drums.

For some reason, when we rehearse, there is no energy. They play all the right notes, but there is no intensity or emotion to the bands playing which makes all of the charts flatline.
I have been trying to figure out an answer to get the band to be more intense for a while now and I just can't come up with one.

Everyone likes the charts and compliments me on them and they sound alright.

When leading a band, how do you get people excited and motivated to do well at them? Whenever I play in other peoples bands there is always a certain level of intensity that flows between everyone, but as soon as I put one together, it just flatlines, even if most of the players in the other band are now in my band.

Any help is much needed.