Eyal Vilner grew up in Tel Aviv and moved to New York City in 2007. A year later, in 2008, he founded the Eyal Vilner Big Band, and has led it continuously since, eighteen years as of 2026. Where most Israeli jazz musicians of his generation write in a modern, post-bop, or ECM-adjacent voice, Vilner built his career in a different lane entirely: the vintage swing and big-band idiom of the 1930s and 40s, a sound rooted in full horn sections, tight ensemble unison, and arrangements built for dancers rather than for concert-hall listening alone.

The band's discography runs to eight studio releases. Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band (2010) established the group; Almost Sunrise (2015) followed with a large ensemble featuring vocalists Charenee Wade, Nadia Washington, and Charles Turner alongside a reed section that included Dan Block and Andrew Gould. Hanukkah (2016), an EP, and Swing Out! (2019) came next, followed by the live recording Live in Washington Square Park! (2021). The Jam! (2022), the band's sixth album, brought in vocalists Imani Rousselle, Brianna Thomas, and Brandon Bain plus a tap-dance solo from choreographer Caleb Teicher. Swingin' Uptown (2024) followed, recorded over two days at Big Orange Sheep studio. The newest record, Big Apple Stomp, arrived in March 2026, the band's eighth: eighteen tracks recorded live in a single room with no headphones or overdubs, tracing a full night through New York City's big-band scene, from a house party to a Harlem ballroom to a Lower East Side speakeasy. All of the band's albums have charted on the Top Jazz Radio Charts in the US and Canada.

Vilner and the band hold regular spots at some of New York's most established jazz rooms, including Birdland, Dizzy's Club, Smalls, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Columbus Circle complex, and outdoor dates at Central Park SummerStage. He has also built a career-long connection between swing music and swing dance: his band provides the live music for SW!NG OUT, a stage production built around competitive Lindy Hop and conceived and directed by choreographer Caleb Teicher at the Joyce Theater, which the New York Times described as "a sweeping ride through contemporary swing dance." Every performance closes with an onstage jam session that invites the audience to dance rather than simply watch.

That world connected Vilner directly to musicians who lived through swing's original era. The band has shared bills and collaborated with saxophonist Frank Wess and tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath, both NEA Jazz Masters, the National Endowment for the Arts' highest honor in the field, before both men passed away in 2013 and 2020 respectively. Trumpeter Jimmy Owens, who holds the same honor and remains active, and pianist Junior Mance, who passed away in 2021, have also worked alongside the band.

Vilner's writing and arranging draw directly from the swing and big-band era of the 1930s and 40s, the period of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the dance-hall orchestras that defined American popular jazz before bebop shifted the music toward the concert stage. His arrangements favor full horn sections in tight unison, concise solo space, and a rhythm section built to keep a dance floor moving, a structural choice that sets him apart from the modal, post-bop, and ECM-influenced voice that defines most of his Israeli jazz contemporaries. His two-decade working relationship with the swing-dance world, through SW!NG OUT and events like Lindy Hop exchanges, keeps that dance-floor function central to his writing rather than treating it as a historical reenactment.