Question about doubling in jazz

[SMSHsax]

THis coming year my jazz band is going to be playing some "real" big band music. My teacher told us right off the bat, "Nothing we will be playing will be easy for you and you will have to learn other instruments because you will need to double from time to time." My question is which instrument will an alto sax need to learn? I mean I've learned that 1st Tenor usually doubles up as the clarinet player, but what would the alto player need to learn?

[mike]

You might come across flute or clarinet doubles in any of the books. Lead alto frequently doubles on soprano. Bari also doubles bass clarinet. You will see the very occasional alto clarinet in one of the tenor books.

[kZepp17]

Last year in our jazz ensemble we played Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue by Duke Ellington, and Crescendo called for 4 clarinets and possibly a bass clarinet.

Typically, bari will play bass clarinet, and the other four (2 altos, 2 tenors) play a regular Bb clarinet.

I play lead alto, and one song we played called for flute. I couldn't play it well enough at the time for a PERFORMANCE, so I transcribed the part. So all in all, I'd probably expect clarinet and/or flute. And hey, if you don't need it, it's still a LOT of fun to play.

[lowguy]

`Yes, if you're the lead alto you can have to play soprano, flute or clarinet.
I sometimes (as 1rst alto) had to play piccolo too.

[Bootman]

I must confess to having to ocassionally play the dreaded shrieking stick of ear destruction on the tenor 1 chair too.

[SMSHsax]

"the dreaded shrieking stick of ear destruction" ? :shock: I can see why you would call it that though. It seems rather fun to play though, and annoying people has it's pros as well. :D Anyway, I've taken the first steps to it, I've spoken to a few friends to teach me the basics about clarinet and flute so I can begin learning how to play music on either. I suppose I should learn them, but either way like kZepp17 said, it is a lot of fun to play them even if I don't have to learn them. =) Might even decide to pick-up a piccolo some time soon. HAHA! :twisted: