[Mrblackbat]

So I've been playing lead tenor recently for a local big band, and it's inspired me to try my hand at arranging; it's something I looked at in college but never finished anything.

Anyway, I posted an arrangement of No Me Esqueça in the monthly thread (cheat cause it's not original....), and here's an arrangement of Everlong by the Foo Fighters, for vocalist. Apologies about the terrible vocal sound, need to get a real singer.... the horns aren't so shabby for samples these days mind.

Score and mp3 here (haven't sorted the parts yet, if you want them, drop me a line); recently updated to get the proper articulations in on the repeated sections, which was a bug in Dorico til now.

Everlong - Mp3
Everlong - Score

Would love feedback on the voicing and parts of the arrangement, whether it flows etc.

 

[stomias]

Jazz Composition and Orchestration book by William Russo

www.thriftbooks.com

 

[Bari Sax Guy]

Thriftbooks is Great (post #2 stomias)
They buy books by the pound that were donated to the Salvation Army and Good will, then organize them and re-sell them.

 

[Mrblackbat]

http://[URL]https://www.thriftbooks...i5RoCmisQAvD_BwE#idiq=9406534&edition=4626102

[/URL]

Sorry, not quite sure what you're meaning here; I was really asking for specific feedback on the arrangement in the link? Or is there specific point you wanted to make about it with regard to Russo's book?

I remember reading it at college years ago.

 

[stomias]

Sorry, not quite sure what you're meaning here; I was really asking for specific feedback on the arrangement in the link? Or is there specific point you wanted to make about it with regard to Russo's book?

I remember reading it at college years ago.

OK, my bad

 

[Mrblackbat]

Ah no worries at all!

 

[Taragot]

This is GREAT writing, so much can be said for shure after one time listening and reading! I wasn't familiar with the song;
awesome creativity to hear a bigband swing style number here and be able to write that down!
Since you asked for details (I'm no expert in writing for bigband but did some arranging much less advanced than yours): Your writing for every musician/section always seems to be fun to play, no redundant parts or boaring repetitions, interesting textures all the way through the piece. Great rhythmical interlocking between the sections and (after one go) I have heared some really interesting passages (those chromatically descending chords in the saxes + many more). And everything is written down in a very professional way.
In a nutshell: This is a killer arrangement and if I were a Foo Fighters Fan, I would absolutely go crazy hearing this piece in this style in a concert. Your band should find a singer and play this arrangement At ONCE!!!!!

 

[Mrblackbat]

Wow, really kind words! Thank you and really glad you enjoyed it. Fortunately we do have a singer, I just need to make sure they're comfortable with the key....

 

[Taragot]

Great to have an ensemble as a homebase which plays the stuff you composed between rehearsals.
Please upload a recordings If you can!

 

[Mrblackbat]

Yeah will do if we can get set up. And yeah having an actual band to play stuff is hugely inspiring, especially given we have some great soloists!

Hence the big trombone solo on this one:

Waltz For Debby (Bill Evans)

Mp3 - Waltz For Debby.mp3
Score - Waltz_For_Debby_Score

 

[Mrblackbat]

And another one; God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, done as a flugel solo:-

God Only Knows - mp3
God Only Knows - score

 

[Mrblackbat]

Need to sort the score for this one out yet, but got the mp3 down; probably need to add an intro section yet though.

Any thoughts very welcome! Roughly based on the Sonny Rollins recording on The Bridge.

Without A Song - mp3
Without A Song - Score

 

[Mrblackbat]

At the risk of talking to myself, here's one just finished; Norwegian Wood by the Beatles by in 4 and sort of a shuffle. The score needs the rhythm section formatting.

Norwegian Wood - mp3

Norwegian Wood - score

 

[Mrblackbat]

Just finished up another arrangement, this time of My Romance by Richard Rogers.

My Romance - mp3
My Romance - Score

 

[Roundmidnite]

Just finished up another arrangement, this time of My Romance by Richard Rogers.

My Romance - mp3
My Romance - Score

Great job! I don’t think I could ever bring myself to have the challenge for original of the month. Be to write a big band chart. To me, it would be like writing a Symphony almost! A lot of different aspects, and I’ve never tried it. Good for you!

 

[Mrblackbat]

"Original" makes it harder for sure, as you need to know your material is decent before starting to arrange. But the past few months of learning some of the mechanics of arranging for big band has been a lot of fun, so perhaps it needs to be an AOTM challenge.....

 

[turf3]

So I've been playing lead tenor recently for a local big band,

A quibble, but there's no such thing as "lead tenor" in a big band.

 

[Mrblackbat]

A quibble, but there's no such thing as "lead tenor" in a big band.

Well that depends on your definition of what a big band is, surely. Some less conventional big bands have more unusual lineups, and I've seen some with no altos at all.

However, in a five sax traditional section, yes, you're right that the lead is alto 1, and it's just tenor 1; but I hear 1st tenor/lead tenor being used interchangeably.

 

[turf3]

Well, if people are calling Sax 2 "lead tenor", they don't understand how the standard big band sax section works. It comes from kids in band, who all want to play "first part", never mind that the interesting stuff is mostly down in the middle and lower voices.

This is why I and the few remaining dinosaurs like me, who learned from the guys who came up during the period of big bands' dominance, like the traditional nomenclature:

Sax 1 = lead alto (with clarinet and flute doubles)
Sax 2 = jazz tenor (with clarinet and soprano sax doubles)
Sax 3 = second alto (with clarinet double)
Sax 4 = second tenor (with clarinet double)
Sax 5 = baritone (with clarinet and bass clarinet doubles).

Doubles vary according to the chart; that's just the most common I've seen.

Each chair has a different role in the section.

Of course there are passages in charts, entire charts, even entire bands, where the "lead sax" is taken by the tenor (I'd expect most of these don't have an alto in the section at all), but the above is the standard. I'd say that in 41 years of playing big band charts more than 95% of the ones I've seen adhere to the above. For that matter, even the Herman bands without lead alto, when the sax section was functioning in the standard way, Woody was playing lead on clarinet.

 

[lydian]

The above is pretty rare, nowhere near 95%, maybe 10%. In the past 40 years at least, most charts are alto 1, alto 2, tenor 1, tenor 2 and bari, or saxes 1 thru 5 where altos are first then tenors then bari. Those also line up with the harmony from top to bottom. Tenor 1 parts are lower than alto 2 the vast majority of the time.