NOTES

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

• Contrast

  • Style

  • Flow of concert

  • Diversity in rep / composers

    • By nature, jazz is part of the Black American sphere

    • Historically, women have not had prominent roles except for as featured vocal soloist

      • Can be difficult to find pieces by female composers, but they do exist

        • Ellen Rowe

        • Ayn Inserto

        • Annie Booth

  • Chops / distribution of parts / number and type of solo

    • "In MN, ensemble level is higher than improv level"

    • "In more southern areas, improv was taught by ear so improv level was higher than ensemble level"

  • Difficulty level

    • They can handle more than you think they can - often, if you don't tell them it's hard then they won't complain and they'll rise to the challenge

WHERE TO PURCHASE

• ejazzlines.com

  • Can order from "big-box" publishing houses

  • Have section for transcriptions from old recordings

• Sierra Music

  • Historic, accurate, hard

    • Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Bill Holman libraries

• "big-box"

  • Can have more flexible instrumentation, but not necessarily truly authentic to the artform

  • Hal Leonard, Alfred, Kendor, Kjos, etc.

• You'll be best suited by programming music that highlights and showcases the strength of your ensemble

  • "What are the current strengths of the ensemble" balanced with "what can you give them to challenge but not overwhelm the players"

  • Know who your soloists are and give them space to play

    • Some charts only give chord changes for certain instruments, but others give solo space for anyone in the ensemble

RANGES FOR YOUNG BAND:

• Trumpet

  • Up to G sitting on the staff (concert F5)

• Trombone

  • Up to concert F4

• Saxophone

  • Avoid doubling (usually for college), but if you want to challenge them

    • Alto 1 doubles - Soprano, flute, clarinet, alto flute

    • Alto 2 doubles - flute, clarinet, alto flute

    • Tenor 1 doubles - clarinet and soprano sax

    • Tenor 2 doubles - clarinet

    • Bari double - bass clarinet or sop. clarinet

Other Considerations

• Professional Writers (that Dave trusts) [focus on art not profit]

  • Michael Phillip Mossman

  • George Stone

  • Frank Mantooth

  • Eric Richards

  • Drew Zaremba

• Female composers to check out

  • Christine Jensen

  • Miho Hazama

  • Carla Bley

  • Toshiko Akiyoshi

The "Historical Canon" of Artists