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Charlie Barnett arrangement of Sidewalks of New York ("East Side, West Side")

SOTSDO

Old King Log
Staff member
CE/Moderator
I'm looking hard for this one, either as a copy of the original or as a new arrangement.

This is the version where the vocalist starts with one iteration of the complete verse after a short intro (8 bars, I think) by the full band. (At the time, I think his group was 5434 plus vocals.) It then is instrumental from there out, with section treatments of the melody followed by tenor and a brief solo lick on soprano sax.

There is a video of it on UTube.

Any help that anyone can give would be appreciated.
 
I wonder how many of these kind of charts are lost to the world now? Every once in a while I come across some music from years gone by and wonder how it basically disappeared. Maybe this kind of stuff doesn't sell anymore.
 
Well, you can still get them done that way with a little effort (and some money). But, better to pick up the original than to have to reinvent the whole thing from near-scratch.
 
I wonder how many of these kind of charts are lost to the world now? Every once in a while I come across some music from years gone by and wonder how it basically disappeared. Maybe this kind of stuff doesn't sell anymore.
CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on Michael Feinstein. He collects old arrangements, sheet music, records and has a large collection. He said he finds them in the strangest places.
 
Terry: A friend of mine, Jim Jones (plays banjo in trad bands) owns the complete Charles Anderson library . . . over 9000 tunes and many in ensemble arrangements. He does business on the Internet as "Yestertunes."

http://www.andersonfakebook.com/

I don't know if he has the particular arrangement you are looking for, but he is a great source for lots of old tunes and arrangements. I've seen the collection. DAVE
 
Dave, it would appear that these arrangements for sale are in lead sheet format. So should I assume they are in Concert C and just one or two pages per song? If they were an ensemble arrangement with parts broken out for bass, piano, drums, and the horns that would be great.

But I suspect they are just like the music found in the fakebooks except only available for C instruments. It sure would be nice to see an arrangement or too as an example. That would answer a lot of questions. But since you've seen some of them...

This page however is worth a lot: http://www.yestertunes.com/html/sheetmusic.html except the last two links are broken.
 
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Among the 9000+ tunes, Jim has arrangements for ensembles, and I think that includes sections. It has been a few years since I visited his house and we jammed a bit, then perused the whole collection. I did not look at each individual tune, but Jim assured me there were arrangements for multiple horns/instruments for many of the tunes.

Just another resource. DAVE
 
I've emailed him for the prices of:
Book #10 280 pages Little Big Band. Trp., Bone., Tenor & Bari Sax

Book #8 1833 pages Stage Band. 8 Brass/ 5 Saxes Big Band (30’s to today)

Book #9 95 pages Navy Music School Dance Band Library (all Stage Band charts)
Great find Terry.
 
Well, it was a great find by Terry some five years ago. And, while I appreciate the credit for something I did not offer, the real credit here should go to Dave, for it is he who remembered to bring up Yestertunes in the first place. I have known about it for years, but did not have the sense to point out that I had already picked Jim's stuff clean.

I've been using Yestertunes since then, although much of what he offers is "stock" stuff that gets you the tune (often arranged by Johnny Warrington) but only in a very stilted "hotel dining room orchestra" version. Stocks are better than nothing (if a client wants a tune for a job and I don't have it on hand, I'll order a stock as a last-ditch solution to the problem), but Johnny's work just isn't up to modern musical standards any longer.

I've not checked Yestertunes to see if he has Sidewalks Of New York, but it is another alternative to consider. I've ordered just about everything in his collection for "full sized band" as far as the vocals go. I've certainly picked up every Barnet chart that he has where it is listed as a Barnet.

(By the way, I'd also like to get the Barnet (early 1950's, I think) arrangement of Harlem Nocturne, if anyone knows where to find that. It's different than the standard one, with a moving bass line in the baritone that really sets off the solo.)

Jim of Yestertunes charges by the page count for each chart, plus a flat shipping fee once you are done.

There are some gems in with all of the "stock" stuff. He has quite a few Walt Stuart charts, for example - almost everything out of Walt's pen is worth owning. However, I always buy my stuff directly from Walt, as he has health problems (both him and his son) and needs the money badly.

As pointed out below, Jim has the listings broken out by type and instrumentation. His website at www.yestertunes.com has provisions for downloading the complete lists in XLR format (Excel). I always order by copying the complete row from the spreadsheet, that way avoiding any misunderstandings at Jim's end. Turnaround is always within a week.

Of the charts listed, I had the best success with the vocals (my group plays about 85% to 90% vocal arrangements). Conversely, I found most of the Navy arranger tunes to be pretty unusable for current "non-jazz" oriented audiences - your experience will, of course, differ.

I use both Walt Stuart and Dick Spencer for most of my custom charts. (I'd estimate that over 50% of our book is custom arranged.)

Walt hits the target every time, but has (for the most part) given up on active arranging these days. He still has a massive collection of Sinatra/Martin/Davis arrangements, which you can purchase from him directly, and (like I said) he could use the money.

Dick Spencer has also slowed down a bit since I first ordered from him. (As compensation, his son is now helping him on modern pop stuff.) His prices are more reasonable than Walt's, and he will write to specification if you want him to. Just send him a lead sheet (for the chords and outline of the melody and words), the key that you want the tune to be in, and (if you like) a recording of the style in which you want it cast, and six weeks later you've got your arrangement.

Dick charges by the part, so a five piece arrangement would cost far less than a ten piece "little big band". While some of my charts vary considerably as far as part count is concerned (anywhere from 5444 to 5445-4 (four vocalists plus aux percussion)), I always pay him for the full twenty two parts for everything, figuring that he earns the extra by all of the customizing that he does.

Both write manuscript rather than using a computer program. Some of Walt's writing can get a little wild at times, and Dick has occasionally left out a bar here or there. (However, bring it to his attention and he'll clean it up and send out a fair copy toute suite.) Those who have played shows or manuscript charts in the past will recognize this problem - it's a nuisance, but you learn to get around it in time.

Those who have to have engraved style music should probably stick with the charts from Hal Leonard (and they have some very good ones as well), or from Lush Life Music over in Blighty. (www.lushlifemusic.com).

The Lush Life folks (scattered from England to Australia) do first rate arrangements, and (as mentioned) their charts are clear and clean - perfect for advanced high school and college folks who want to do some challenging charts but still have shaky reading skills.

(Lush Life's charts have an added advantage when used in a teaching situation - they also offer MP3 files of almost all of their music through their website. This is also good when breaking in a new singer; he or she can just go to their website and download a vocal recording of the chart, and then work it up independently of the whole group, this to save a lot of rehearsal time.)

Email me at info@sotsdo.com if you want any mailing addresses or pricing structure.
 
Terry and Dave my appologies for continuing to mix youse guys up. You both have such a depth in this kind of thing and I should pay more attention.

Team WF, I've created a new forum called the Music Library in the Community and General Discussion section for us to start capturing some of these great recommendations. Feel free to contribute there as you have time.
 
There are some gems in with all of the "stock" stuff. He has quite a few Walt Stuart charts, for example - almost everything out of Walt's pen is worth owning. However, I always buy my stuff directly from Walt, as he has health problems (both him and his son) and needs the money badly.
Terry,
Walt died in August. His family did not have sufficient funds to cover his cremation expenses, so Charlie Bertini of Applejazz Records put together a memorial fund and collected enough in donations to cover it.

You can still purchase his arrangements from his estate.

http://waltstuart.com/

and, yes, they can still use the money.

Reading a Walt Stuart chart is like taking a lesson in how it ought to be done.
 
Great looking site. I bookmarked it for use this summer.
 
Well, I'm glad that I got to spend quite a bit of time (on the phone) with him on the last project I threw his way. His "And All That Jazz" is a tune I've been using for many years as an opener (girl vocal), but I've always wanted to tack the "Overture" from Chicago on to the front of it, as it appears in the show.

I found a poor arrangement of the "Overture", and asked Walt to re-craft it same style and key as his "And All That Jazz". He put it together in outline, but wasn't up to finishing the job, so he passed it off to Mike Arena, who finished the work, but in the wrong key! (Much of this was done in hurried telephone conversations when I was going through a very active period at work right before my retirement, so it's understandable that an error like that might have crept in.)

(One of these days, I'm going to contact Mike and have him bump it into the right key. (Mike did it in Finale, unlike Walt's distinctive notation style, but the spirit of the tune was still there.) But too much is going on now for me to worry about that.)

I knew that Walt hadn't been well for some time, but I didn't know he was in that bad of health. (Indeed, most of his concerns when we last talked were for his ill son - just like any parent in that regard, I guess). But, even though he's now gone, his large body of work lives on.

His charts are not for everyone. Virtually all that I've ever seen were vocals, both female and male. The voicing in the horn parts is done well, but some of them (we did a couple this morning, including "And All That Jazz" with a new girl singer) rely on all parts being covered - a luxury for many groups these days when playing with reduced instrumentation. It's something to consider, but if you have a good Sinatra or Darin or the like up front, they are worth trying.
 
(One of these days, I'm going to contact Mike [Arena] and have him bump it into the right key. (Mike did it in Finale, unlike Walt's distinctive notation style, but the spirit of the tune was still there.) But too much is going on now for me to worry about that.)
Don't wait too long. Mike is in his 80s now and making noises about retiring. But I'll believe that when I see it.

Hey. My junior member just got promoted to member. I thought you needed pills for that.
 
Hey. My junior member just got promoted to member. I thought you needed pills for that.
My mentor as a newbie tech writer wouldn't allow the use of some words like member or function. Function??? BTW, that's kinda challenging to do when writing about the C programming language. She was very talented but kinda scary as a human being.
 
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