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Jet Lag is an Ellington-inspired riff tune with a serious harmonic twist. The serpentine changes in Bb are functional and logical but require a bit more focus than usual and the slightly behind-the-chords melody all work together to bring the title to life. This is an experimental chart that is a great workout for your best improvisers.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 4 TEMPO = 190 Trumpet
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A Stompers Recrudescence is a killer finale piece. It starts with a windup intro, like a train leaving the station, before hitting a pre-head fanfare, then goes on to features all four horn players, an infectious blues head, and a huge final two choruses.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 3 TEMPO = 175 Trumpet
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The Wilhelm Scream is a flag waving jam session tune in the spirit of a Basie-style Lester Leaps In or a Shaw-style Diga Diga Doo that is open for solos for any/all instruments in the band. Built modularly, there are unique horn backgrounds that can be played depending on which instrument is soloing, with a final cued shout chorus that brings the house down!
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 3 TEMPO = 230 Trumpet
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Dysthymia, Maybe is an easy walkin' tune featuring a simplified bluesy unison riff for the melody and easy solo changes in F. This is an easy head tune that gives your horns a nice break while keeping dancers on the floor.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 2 TEMPO = 125 Trumpet
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Hobbledehoy is a long outdated word meaning a clumsy or awkward youth. This tune captures that spirit while still swinging and providing a perfect foundation for dancers. The melody is mostly in unison with some riffs and 3-part background lines behind the solos. This one is a hit that your band will love!
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 2 TEMPO = 140 Trumpet
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Emerald is a Rocco and the Stompers original that primarily features the alto sax with triad counterpoint a la Johnny Hodges and Duke Ellington. This is a fun an interesting chart considering how relatively easy it is, and it's always a hit with dancers!
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 2 TEMPO = 150 Trumpet
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Vestigiophony is a winding dance tempo swing tune that is loosely based on Wayne Shorter's composition Footprints, if that tune was written and arranged by Duke Ellington for Johnny Hodges' seven piece band. Horns are often concerted in 4-part voicings, all building to solos, then to a shout chorus with drum solo fills.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 4 TEMPO = 160 Trumpet
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Pletchtastic is a tongue-in-cheek titled song commissioned for Club Drosselmeyer. A simple Bb blues riff melody, solos for every instrument, no backgrounds, and a big intro and ending makes this a great opener, closer, or mid-set rest piece for your horns.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 2 TEMPO = 175 Trumpet
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This Cootie Williams number is a great easy piece that still authentically swings hard. The original recording of Do Some War Work, Baby has a vocal chorus in the middle, but this transcription replaces it with a solo chorus for bari sax and alters the ending to make it fully instrumental. The vocal version can be found here.
Instrumentation Ellington 7-Piece Style Swing Era Level 1 TEMPO = 140 Trumpet
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Ilkimcim Için Bir Şarkı is an original song I wrote for my wonderful girlfriend's birthday and is the first in a series of small chamber music compositions that make up a larger musical and visual project. This jazz ballad has a melody that is almost entirely diatonic and in a major key, but with underlying harmony that is juxtaposed with lots of reharmonizations and darker minor chords. It's a passionate piece with emotional complexity, but it never doubts itself and ultimately settles on a balanced major tonic chord in the end.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Modern Jazz Level 1 TEMPO = 90 Trumpet
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O Tannenbaum, also known as O Christmas Tree, is typically played in a slower 3/4 time. Here, it's in a swinging 4/4 groove with textures that jump in and out of solo, concerted and counterpoint with harmony ranging from traditional to a more aggressive Duke Ellington style.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Bebop Level 3 TEMPO = 130 Trumpet
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The Holly and the Ivy is presented here in a contemporary arrangement that puts a new spin on an old classic. The first half is in an aggressive fanfare style with rapid fire harmonized lines and quick tonal shifts. The second half goes to a half time feel with three part harmony over a fusion jazz style tuba line. All of this ends with a punchy coda and a bold final chord. Basically, this one is super fun to play!
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical, Modern Jazz Level 4 TEMPO = 120 Trumpet
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This 19th century Christmas standard belongs in every brass quartet book, and this new arrangement puts it right on the edge of traditional and modern. Featuring a solo tuba up front and bringing the other instruments in with heavy functional reharmonization, the piece beautifully makes its way to a melancholy but resolved conclusion.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical, Modern Jazz Level 1 TEMPO = 120 Trumpet
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This arrangement of Joy to the World has a range of dynamics and harmonies and is a killer upgrade to the more traditional versions out there. Now in a fast 3/4 time signature, this version has a lead trumpet melody part that is virtually unaltered, with colorful counterparts and reharmonizations flying around it.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical, Modern Jazz Level 3 TEMPO = 220 Trumpet
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Jingle Bells is one of the most recognizable holiday classics of all time, so I felt an obligation to do something different with this arrangement. The first two bars are traditional and "classical" before unexpectedly launching into a double time swing feel featuring the 2nd trumpet and 4-feel bass lines. It then abruptly settles into a normal time straight feel, almost in a rock style, with the melody exactly where you expect it but underlying functional harmony built on top of a 12-tone chord progression. In other words, this one sounds cool.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical, Modern Jazz Level 4 TEMPO = 90 Trumpet
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This 19th century classic sees a jazz update here, with swinging rhythms and tight 20th century jazz harmony driving it forward. The ending is a bit chaotic and helps put this on the difficult side of a level 3 arrangement, but overall this is a fun version of the tune that has more pop to it than usual.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Bebop, Modern Jazz Level 3 TEMPO = 180 Trumpet
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With modern harmony that spins around the tonic and a laser focused fanfare ending, this modernized update to Good King Wenceslas is a refreshing take on the classic. This is on the harder side of level 4 - the tuba part is a bit difficult and there are quick time signature changes that appear difficult but logically are very simple once all the players have gotten used to it.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Modern Jazz Level 4 TEMPO = 130 Trumpet
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Good Christian Men, Rejoice is a a very old and traditional Christmas tune that I decided to give a total harmonic makeover to. Now in a tropical 6/8 groove with brisk chromatic harmony, GCMR is a killer chart with a great musical payoff.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Modern Jazz Level 5 TEMPO = 120 Trumpet
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God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is a 500 year old holiday standard that has undoubtedly been recorded hundreds of times, and every holiday brass book needs a copy. This tasteful version for brass quartet features traditional harmony that slowly develops into something a little more modern and unique without ever becoming unrecognizable, ending with a conventional Picardy third.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical Level 1 TEMPO = 120 Trumpet
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One of the older Christmas standards, Deck the Halls is a classic that belongs in every holiday brass quartet book. This is a very easy level 3, save for an abrupt fanfare in the final few bars that brings the arrangement to a triumphal end. The harmony ranges from traditional to modern nonfunctional, but it is always well-balanced.
Instrumentation Brass Quartet Style Classical Level 3 TEMPO = 160 Trumpet
Range