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Sleepy Creek Samba for 5-horn jazz ensemble

Roger Aldridge

Composer in Residence
Distinguished Member
A new chart for mid-size ensemble is on its way. The score is finished and the parts should be done in a week or two. I'm looking for bands to perform it.

If you'd like to work with this music, let me know and I'll send a set of parts & score.

The score is attached. It can serve as a preview of the music. Please read the last page of the score for an explaination of how my approach to flexible instrumentation works. Simply put, just about any configuration of wind instruments -- 5 saxes, 5 brass, mix of saxes & brass, woodwind quintet, clarinet ensemble...or a custom mix of tone colors -- can be used for a horn section. The rhythm section is also flexible. At a minimum, guitar or piano, bass, and drums are needed. More instruments can be added to the rhythm section. There is also a soloist part in the score.

A demo recording of the samba played by a quintet (featuring Jason Shapiro on soprano sax) can be heard on my Reverbnation page. Use the link below in my signature.

For those who like the tune but are not in a larger ensemble, a copy of the leadsheet is available from my composer's page at the American Music Center online library. Link is below in signature.

There is also a version of the samba available for big band. It uses a reed section of flute (featured), 3 clarinets, and bari sax. Very cool sound! If that instrumentation is a problem, I have alternatives.

Enjoy!

Roger
 
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New Attachment

Here's a new attachment for my Sleepy Creek Samba score.
 
Roger, when are you going to use Sibelius or Finale so that we can auto-tweak the parts? I know, we've already talked about this. But it would be a huge boon for the hobbyists among us. Yes, I do transcriptions... it just takes a long time.
 
I plan to take a look at Sibelius in the new year and see what it can do for me. As you might remember, Jason Shapiro used Sibelius for my hand-written wind ensemble score for Buzzards in Love a couple of years ago. Overall, it worked out quite well. However, the open improv section of the score was tricky for Sibelius....as was having improv over the vamp toward the end.

My Sleepy Creek Samba score is the most notational-based thing that I've written so far in this series of pieces for mid-size ensemble. I'd expect that it could be okay for Sibelius. However, the other scores are highly improv-based -- with performance instructions -- and use free-time. Based on my limited experience with Sibelius, I suspect that it would be very tricky to use Sibelius for them. But, perhaps it's possible.

Given that fewer instruments needed for these scores -- and especially how they use a flexible approach to instrumentation -- I'd like to see some ensembles represented by members of the forum give them a try. Surely, there must be some sax sections or brass sections or woodwind quintets or clarinet ensembles that have members here.
 
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