Great bari features-what are they-- lets show our talent!

[saxbruce]

Just wondering, because the bari is the sexiest instrument out there, but extremely unappreciated, lets find out what chart/feature/solo/arrangement works for us!! Please list them, and say why they are so good! You know them, cos' you blow them! Lets get the admin/directors/fund arrangers/band leaders to buy us them (the arrangements) for the band right now! Please!

[MPL]

Big band charts, featuring baritone, that I've played and feel strongly about:

"Moanin'" by Charles Mingus. Arranged by Sy Johnson. Recorded by the Mingus Big Band, featuring Ronnie Cuber. Better have some bebop chops for this one - not for beginners and not for pretenders.

"Bleuphoria," composed & arranged by Bob Florence. Ballad/Medium tempo feature for baritone. Some doubles in other saxophone parts. Recorded by the Bob Florence Limited Edition, featuring Bob Efford.

"The Peacocks," by Jimmy Rowles, arranged by Bill Holman. Ballad feature for bass clarinet or baritone, with doubles in other saxophone parts. Recorded by the Bill Holman Band, featuring Bob Efford on bass clarinet. Also not for beginners - this one's hard.

"A Smith Named Greg," by Hank Levy. Ballad intro, uptempo main section, all featuring baritone. Recorded by Stan Kenton, featuring Greg Smith.

These are all commercially available from a variety of sources.

[saxbruce]

Thanks MPL, thats exactly the stuff that I was looking for to give the tenor -sax biased, band director an idea of what we can do. I am going to look up all the stuff you mentioned, and the Mingus one I am off to research immediately.

[Gange]

When I was playing bari i our big band (I have since been degraded to first tenor) we played an arrangement of Lars Gullin's Merlin. Very beautiful piece of music. It was an old Swedish arrangement I think... Can't tell... Sorry :-)

[Alto Giant]

Thanks MPL, thats exactly the stuff that I was looking for to give the tenor -sax biased, band director an idea of what we can do.

Yes it's horrible to play bari in a big band...I got that experience early but that sax is simply great and there should be more people who play it...

[paulwl]

Who could forget Sophisticated Lady – with the Ellington band's sustained chords backing Harry Carney's double espresso macchiato tone. Mmmm...toasty.

[MPL]

I think it's impossible to play "Sophisticated Lady" without trying to sound like Harry Carney - that's how much he influenced that tune!

A couple more charts featuring baritone:

"It Could Happen To You," arranged by Lennie Niehaus for Kenton. Not sure which recording or soloist.

"Auld Lang Syne," arranged by Bob Florence and featuring Bob Efford. I think that's recorded on "State Of the Art" by the Limited Edition.

"No Joy in Mudville," by Bill Holman. Not a baritone feature per se, but a great chart that has trombone & baritone solos.

[MTKilpatrick]

If there is anybody out there specifically interested in the baritone sax features that Ellington wrote for Harry Carney, there are two of these - Frustration and Golden Feather - in my catalogue of Duke Ellington transcriptions. Please take a look at http://www.ellington-music.co.uk if you are interested. The transcriptions are derived from my studies of the original manuscripts, and for Golden Feather even includes some additional material from the original score which was never recorded. Full ear-transcriptions of Carney's playing are also provided with the score and parts.

Michael

[BariSkaJazz]

"Coconut Champange" - i believe by manyard fergeson's big band

features a great bari solo

[AbrahamFackle]

When I was playing bari i our big band (I have since been degraded to first tenor)

The same thing happened to me. I feel your pain. Since my move, we've added "Moanin'" to our repertoire... life can be so unfair.

[AbrahamFackle]

"The Peacocks," by Jimmy Rowles, arranged by Bill Holman. Ballad feature for bass clarinet or baritone, with doubles in other saxophone parts. Recorded by the Bill Holman Band, featuring Bob Efford on bass clarinet. Also not for beginners - this one's hard.


I've played this one on both instruments- IMHO it's not as good on baritone. Bcl just fits the mood of the arrangement perfectly.

[MPL]

it's not as good on baritone. Bcl just fits the mood of the arrangement perfectly.
I suspect Holman's original conception was for a bass clarinet feature and that the baritone "double" was added for flexibility.

I disagree that it sounds "better" on bass clarinet, though. You'd agree with me if you heard me play bass clarinet!

[AbrahamFackle]

I suspect Holman's original conception was for a bass clarinet feature and that the baritone "double" was added for flexibility.

I disagree that it sounds "better" on bass clarinet, though. You'd agree with me if you heard me play bass clarinet!


Isn't it amazing how many horrible sounds you can get out of a bcl?

I suppose it's equally amazed that people aren't disgusted by any of them. You can stand up to take a solo and just make noises for 4 choruses and the crowd goes wild.

[dirty]

Isn't it amazing how many horrible sounds you can get out of a bcl?

I suppose it's equally amazed that people aren't disgusted by any of them. You can stand up to take a solo and just make noises for 4 choruses and the crowd goes wild.

We call them multiphonics and "sound experiments," not disgusting noises.:D

I really want to try this peacock song. It sounds like my kind of thing, since I'm significantly better at the bass clarinet than the tenor or the bari.

[AbrahamFackle]

"Sound expiriments". That's a good 'un.

The peacocks is gorgeous but it's not very rewarding to play. The bridge is awkward as hell, and the solo section is very short. I mean, it's still fun, but (as a pianist friend said about Bach) the work/reward ratio is off.

I just had a horrible thought... someone should contact one of those lucky few contrabass sax/tubax owners and commission a recording of Moanin'.

[Merlin]

Funny, I've always found that a ballad like "The Peacocks" is a joy to play because the accent is on beauty of sound and melodic ornamentation. I do the Strayhorn arrangement on "Stranger on the Shore" on bass clarinet (the original recording of this chart is Harry Carney on bari w/Duke's band) and people love hearing it.

I used to play it on bari, but switched to bass clarinet on a whim in a concert last year, and I've never looked back.

[AbrahamFackle]

I guess the way I said that makes me look shallow.

I enjoy playing ballads, and agree with everything Merlin said.

Instead of saying the peacocks was "unrewarding to play" I should have said it takes a lot of work to play it well and it doesn't sound difficult. I feel like the melody needs to be played exactly as written as making melodic embellishments always seems to ruin it; as a result whenever I played it straight, I would feel afterwards like it would have been better if I had personalized it a bit, and when I tried to "interpret" it, I always felt like I had ruined the piece, so either way I lost. I also had difficulty playing the bridge- it always went fine in practice but in a performance situation I would inevitably miss-finger something during the bit where the band drops out and that also made me feel like I had ruined the piece.

Of course all those problems are a result of my shortcomings as a musician.

Also, the solo section is short and is only over the "easy" part of the tune, so you don't get the fun of playing over the fun changes of the bridge. For some reason it usually takes me 8 or more bars to start a solo, and as a result when the solo ended I was usually in the middle of something interesting, and again this made me feel like I'd ruined it.

In short, I loved the tune, but I never felt like I did it justice, and as a result it was unrewarding to play.

I say the dumbest things on here sometimes.

[saxbruce]

AbrahamFackle worries a little about saying 'the dumbest things on here sometimes'.....

I too sometimes wonder what the hell I am contributing to this forum, and worry a bit about how much sense and sensibility I seem to make.... but when I hear the likes of Joe Temperley laying aside his baritone for the bass clarinet to play 'Single Petal of A Rose' front stage, as a feature with the pianist of the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, and it brings tears to my eyes because of the sheer beauty, then I know that I too have opinions!

[Brendan Muse]

Eherm...

Well, my band director dug up VIP's Boogie last year from the Essentially Ellington catalogue. It's got two bari feature sections, which I rather enjoy.

[Sadie]

I've played VIP's Boogie too, it's a good chart, especially the solo part at the beginning. Our director also gave us one entitled "Pepper" (tribute to Pepper Adams of course) which looks promising. We haven't really played it yet however, but I'm looking forward to it.

-Sadie

[Joey the Saint]

"That Mellow Saxophone," the Brian Setzer arrangement off Guitar Slinger.

[VeryBari]

I have been a devoted fan of Roger Lewis ever since high school. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is probably more responsible for dragging me away from heavy metal than my band teacher ever was (bless him nonetheless). Mr. Lewis has one on the Dirty Dozen album "Open Up"(I think) called Song for Lady M... Unaccompanied baritone sax blues lament. It's the real deal, folks.

Recently, though, a trumpet player in my local community band turned me on to Gerry Mulligan. I'm surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread, since I seem to be the only bari player on the planet who JUST learned about this guy. I gather he was a driving force for the bari as solo/lead instrument since the 1950's. If not for him, we might all still be chained to our oars back in the low brass section, doomed to thump out the baseline until we perish... oh, wait, did I mention I play in a community band? (rattle of chains) Yep, the struggle continues.:(
The first thing I saw from the Mulligan quartet (with Chet Baker) was the sheet music. 'Gack!' was definitely my first response. I mean, who thought playing in the key of EVERYTHING sharp, while flying at about 20,000 ft above the octave break, was a good idea? And then I heard the recording... :notworth: :notworth: :notworth: :notworth: Smokin' hot stuff, I say.

I'm happy to report that I have the changes on 2 of his tunes mostly under my belt. Soft Shoe and Bernie's Tune(actually written by Bernie Miller) are worth the effort, and may be coming to a gazebo near me next summer.

[MBushaw]

You know that bari is your horn if you get chills down your spine playing 'Lil Darlin'. If you can't feel the weight of the section riding on your foundation, feel the swing of the tune in the space between your notes then maybe you should look into playing one of the, er , smaller horns.
If you play bari in a big band you have to take what you can. Try stealing a chorus or two from 'Wind Machine', play some be bop at alto tempo, use the great bottom end as a reason in itself for being, make the horn scream!
When I was very young I was told that bari is the second most important horn in a big band sax section. It took me a while to figure out that it was true (and not just a line to get me to switch horns). Now I sometimes think it is the most important. LISTEN to Pepper and tell me I'm not right.

[Bob M]

Ah, "Lil Darlin'"....I couldn't agree with MBushaw more!!!

If you want a first class lesson in baritone playing (and how a bari can "lead" the band) listen to Charlie Fowlkes in any of Basie's recordings of "Lil Darlin'". Folks, it just doesn't get any better than that :D .

[MPL]

Another cool thing about playing baritone in a big band: Any time you play a Thad Jones chart from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis days, you realize that the first person to ever play the part was probably Pepper Adams. That's pretty inspirational!

As for Gerry Mulligan: there seems to be a common understanding that while many baritone players like Mulligan, very few baritonists have wanted to play or sound like him. He definitely didn't play with the traditional big band "anchor" sound - but most of the time he wasn't playing in a big band, so his concept of the baritone as a solo voice wasn't necessarily coming out of that context.

[VeryBari]

Yeah, I get the feeling that you either agree with Mulligan or you don't... I look at it as a worthy challenge right now. I'll get back to you all on the verdict.

[MPL]

Hey, don't get me wrong...for a long time, I wanted to sound like late '50s Mulligan, except I finally realized that I really wanted the wittiness of his lines and his great sense of swing. And I'm not there yet!

I suspect that other baritonists who came up during that era - Cecil Payne, Shahib Shihab, Adams later on - were more interested in a Bird-like approach, which was definitely more aggressive than Mullligan's musical personality would allow. Playing like Mulligan might have seemed like a step backward for some of them.

My favorite Mulligan is the stuff he did with Paul Desmond, another unfairly neglected and tremendously witty player. They are as compatible a pair of horn players as you can get.

[barisaxplayer]

Speaking of Mulligan, there's a Jeru out there published by Hal Leonard... Big band version of the tune. pretty well done. Copies Mulligan's solo perfectly from The Birth of the Cool album, so somethin to learn from. I'm addicted to Mulligan's sound and style, personally. I've heard live recordings of him playing the various different styles from parker to big band and just about everything in between. It seems to me that the style he played the most often was just his preferred, but he was able to do any other style just as well.

So, Jeru is a chart you could add, although it would be "cool" to add some open solo to it for the bari.
Prelude to a Kiss is another one I didn't see.
Bari, Bari good, easy but a bari feature!
Check out jwpepper.com... their catalogue for finding music is great, easy to find solos for each instrument.

[tapdancesavy]

Eherm...

Well, my band director dug up VIP's Boogie last year from the Essentially Ellington catalogue. It's got two bari feature sections, which I rather enjoy.


I was at the Essentially Ellington Festival in NY last year and there were some pretty sweet bari players playing VIP's Boogie.

Licked Clean is another fun jazz part with an awesome trombone/bari sax soli.