Original Big Band Charts

[Gandalfe]

Microsoft occasionally makes CDs of original music performed by employees to sell with the proceeds going to charity. I'd luv to get the Microsoft Jazz Band doing a Basie'esque chart or something? Anyone got anything to contribute? We'd list you as the composer.

(Yes, this is a hail mary pass...)

(Testing edit option change on main server...)

[Roger Aldridge]

More information please about the band's instrumentation -- especially, sax section doubles -- and soloists. Are you looking for mostly mainstream big band stuff or is the band open to trying more contemporary & creative music?

Thanks, Roger

[acglass]

I sent one just yesterday, let the band try it and see what they think.

[Gandalfe]

Roger: The MJB band is the best band I play with. It's a standard 17 musician (5,4,4,4) plus a female vocalist. All the saxes play clarinet and some flute, but none well enough to solo. Here's a recording of the MJB: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfFhfNUQ6Ks (It was a static camera and I really need to find a camera man in the near future.)

Aaron: I hope to try it with the PCBB once you get to version 2.0 with any necessary changes made. :)

All: I want to find that killer original chart, work it up, and do some studio time to record it for the Web site and the annual charity drive CD.

[Roger Aldridge]

An original has been sent to your email. It's something "different" however it should be easy to play.

Roger

[Gandalfe]

I'm lookin' at it now Roger. Thanks!

[Roger Aldridge]

If the soprano sax is a problem for your band, a trumpet could be used instead.

[Gandalfe]

If the soprano sax is a problem for your band, a trumpet could be used instead.There are three sop sax, three sop clarinet, two flute, and two bass clarinet players (with instrument availability) in the front row. Can't wait to give this a go tonight. 8-)

[chemEtoo]

Can you take a chart for next week? I just saw the thread and need to get your email address for sending pdfs (PM soon to be sent).

[Gandalfe]

Can you take a chart for next week? I just saw the thread and need to get your email address for sending pdfs (PM soon to be sent).Excellent. I should mention that on the CD we list the arranger and year of the piece. I hope that is okay too.

[Roger Aldridge]

Gandalfe,

Please send an email and let me know how it goes in giving it a rundown.

By the way, I often encourage folks who are playing my stuff to use what I've notated as a point of departure. First try it as written. Then, if you get creative ideas for how you can give the music a more personal expression of your band and your players, by all means feel empowered to be creative with it. After all, this is jazz...not a concert band piece. Hee hee

Hope it works for you.

Roger

[chemEtoo]

Gandalfe, I forgot to mention that in my chart everyone has changes for the solo section, and the solo isn't assigned to any one part in particular. The saxes have backgrounds while the brass can rest their chops.

[MartinMods]

Excellent. I should mention that on the CD we list the arranger and year of the piece. I hope that is okay too.

Do the contributing/recorded composers/arrangers get a complimentary copy of the CD, maybe? 8-)

[Gandalfe]

So we tried Michael's piece and the band liked it a lot. Next practice (we only do two practices before the gig) I hope to get Roger's chart in. One of the saxes who was gonna play clarinet didn't bring the instrument last night. I want to record Michael's piece at the next practice too.

Lance, at the very least. 8-)

[Roger Aldridge]

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

[Carl H.]

Roger, does your viola have an added F string on the bottom or an E string on the top?

[Roger Aldridge]

C string on the bottom.

The usual string tuning is G-D-A-E like a violin with an added low C string like the lowest string on a viola.

Roger

[chemEtoo]

I'm glad to hear that the band liked my tune. I'd love to get a copy of the recording. The drummer at my rehearsal last night gave me some advice about improving the notation on their part, so I'll send you a revised copy once I fix it up.

Roger, your Cottontail arrangement sounds like a lot of fun. I'm trying to figure out how a piano-less big band I'm in could accomplish the viola double. Would it work with two guitars instead?

[Gandalfe]

Roger, can a bass bone double the tuba part? Don't know what I'd about the viola part. But I have a killer bass guy who can and does play frankenstein guitar/bass thangs (top two string bass, bottom four guitar) who could probably figure something out.

[SOTSDO]

If your vocalist is up to the challenge, get a copy of Big Time form Lushlife Music. It is a kick-ass, no holds barred female vocalist showpiece, with spectacular brass and sax lines throughout.

(It was apparently written expressly for Linda Eder. There is a free recording of the chart accessible through the Lushlife Music web site, so your singer can check it out first before you buy. The cost delivered is about $45.00, depending on the current exchange rate.)

There is a lead clarinet part that is pretty showy and has an extreme range (up to G4; I sort of fumble my way upwards in that direction and lip the hell out of whatever note I obtain in the process).

My two girl singers have worked up a technique whereby they "trade verses" throughout the song with all sorts of cute stage business, rounding on the audience for the choruses. Wonderful bit of crowd engagement, the sort of thing I sometimes have trouble getting vocalists to do.

My group likes this chart so much that we bumped Les Brown's Sweet Georgia Brown out of one of the set closer spots. A high complement there.

[Roger Aldridge]

Gandalfe,

I estimate that about 85% of the tuba part can be easily played on bass trombone. There's an 8-bar unison tuba & bass soli that goes lower than the usual range for bass trombone -- and has a dreaded low B natural. It's possible that we could work around that by having just the bass play the moving lines in that passage and the bass trombone could play Bb trombone pedal points where there are sustained notes below low C in the tuba/bass soli. There are tuba trills in several places. I'm thinking that they could be played as lip trills on bass trombone.

The best thing for the viola part is for me to rewrite it for guitar. It would then be easy to play on that axe.

If you'd like to give the chart a try, I'll write the viola part for guitar. Also, I'd need to mail the score & parts to you as the parts are on larger than letter size paper (custom size) and I'd have a problem scanning them into PDFs.

Roger

[Gandalfe]

Michael, here's the MJB read of your original chart, "Cafe True Blue" with one of the solos done on the Jazzophone.

http://www.youtube.com/gandalfe#p/a/u/0/E5zoWeC-rVU

Note, we really horked the into but most liked the song. I've passed on specific feedback in a PM to you here.

[chemEtoo]

Nice job for two rehearsals! Is this the cut that goes on the recording, or is the recording session in the future? If you have another chance, the practice to fix the intro will also fix the ending. I'm glad that most of the band liked the tune and arrangement.

I also must admit that I've never heard of "hork" as a verb (or other part of speech, I suppose).

[Roger Aldridge]

Gandalfe and Everyone,

I'm currently working on a new piece for wind ensemble that can be performed by either contemporary classical or jazz players. It's scored for 11 individual instruments: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, flute, baritone sax, tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, french horn, and trumpet. In addition, there is a soloist (any instrument). The score is structured to have a great amount of improvisational interaction between the conductor, the ensemble, and the soloist. In this way, the music will sound different each time it's performed.

A practical approach could be to perform it with a mix of good players from a community band (woodwinds and horn) and saxes & trumpet from a big band. I'll let you know when it's finished.

Roger

[Gandalfe]

Nice job for two rehearsals! Is this the cut that goes on the recording, or is the recording session in the future? If you have another chance, the practice to fix the intro will also fix the ending. I'm glad that most of the band liked the tune and arrangement.

I also must admit that I've never heard of "hork" as a verb (or other part of speech, I suppose).Hork is used in the computer programming world, or at the very least that is where I first heard it. Bork is an alternate usage.

The CD is cut in September so we have time for tweaks and all.

[Gandalfe]

Gandalfe and Everyone,

I'm currently working on a new piece for wind ensemble that can be performed by either contemporary classical or jazz players. It's scored for 11 individual instruments: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, flute, baritone sax, tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, french horn, and trumpet. In addition, there is a soloist (any instrument). The score is structured to have a great amount of improvisational interaction between the conductor, the ensemble, and the soloist. In this way, the music will sound different each time it's performed.
Roger, note that an oboist, french horn or bassoon player who can read changes? That is extremely rare in my world. When I see charts like that I normal figure I have to write out solos for those folks.

[Roger Aldridge]

No one reads chord changes in this music. It's not anything like conventional jazz stuff. Rather, it's a revisiting of how New Music notation and improvisation were used by a number of avant-garde classical composers in the 70's. Sadly, this style of composition does not appear to be as commonly used today. I find it to be great fun and very exciting.

As a short verbal description of what I'm writing in the first section of the piece....

I devised an 11-tone harmonic structure or "harmonic complex" that is based on a mirror shape of intervalic patterns. If you'd like to see the pattern please email me and I'll send it to you. I scanned it this morning to send to a composer buddy. In this section, each of the 11 instruments has only one note to play. Superimposed on the harmonic structure are a series of instructions for how to play the note in different ways including some special effects. Each instruction is numbered. The 11 instruments are formed into 3 groups: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, and flute as a woodwind quintet (group 1); the saxophones as a saxophone quartet (group 2); and finally the horn and trumpet (group 3). The groups play together in various combinations or individually in 7 different permutations -- such as all three playing together, woodwinds + saxes, woodwinds + horn & trumpet, saxes + horn & trumpet, individual groups. The series of instrument group permutations interact with the the series of instructions for playing a note / special effects. These are notated in the score as cues and numbered. The conductor cues the ensemble as to what series of permutations to play and in what order. In having the conductor make all of these selections -- ideally, in the course of a performance -- he, in effect, is improvising with the ensemble and shaping the unfoldment of the music in real time in a way that's similar to a soloist improvising with his horn. On top of this, a soloist uses the 11-tone harmonic complex of the score and what is happening in a live performance with the ensemble as an improvisation springboard.

So, you see, there are no chord changes in this music and the improvision is more like New Music contemporary classical improvisation than mainstream jazz.

Hope this helps to clarify, Roger