Gandalfe,
I have an arrangement of Cotton Tail that I wrote for my 10-piece band. It's one that I especially like. It has some Ellington-Strayhorn touches. However, one of the things that's distinctive about it is I took fragments of several Lester Young solos (transcribed by Tim Price) and stiched them together to form a 32-bar ensemble chorous. It starts at the bottom end of the ensemble, with the tuba & bass, and progressively works its way up to a full-ensemble shout. I intentionally used Lester phrases that are outrageously funny and harmonically out-of-the-box. Whenever I hear this chart played I cannot help but laugh out loud.
However, I'm not sure if the instrumentation will work for your band.
The chart is scored for:
trumpet
reed I -- clarinet, soprano sax double
reed II -- soprano sax
reed III -- bari
bass clarinet
tuba
5-string electric viola
guitar
bass
drums
I can rescore the viola part for guitar. Then, piano can cover the original guitar part.
I've thought about reworking this chart for a conventional big band. However, I cannot help but think it would lose the qualities that make it unique and special. The tone colors and textures of this instrumentation are extremely cool!
Please let me know what you think.
Roger