Description

George Gershwin – A Foggy Day

Gene de Paul – You Don’t Know What Love Is    

Bob Carleton – Ja-Da

Johnny Mandel – Emily

Jerome Kern – All the Things You Are

The fourth volume of arrangements for brass quintet features another five classic songs from the Great American Songbook. In penning these arrangements, I have tried to ensure that all five instruments have their ‘moments in the sun’: if not always in each song then certainly throughout the volume itself, which contains a variety of styles and tempi. In this album, I once again draw heavily on my experience as a dance band arranger. It is buttressed by two quicksteps – A Foggy Day and All the Things You Are.  The beautifully tender Emily is the first slow waltz tempo used in this series, whilst Ja-Da is a set of variations on a simple but irresistibly catchy old song set here as a cha-cha.  Finally, the broodingly poignant You Don’t Know What Love Is afforded me the opportunity to show off some interesting jazz harmony substitutions: especially toward the end.   

The arrangements are very much designed for public performance: whether as amusing novelties/encores within a concert dominated by more serious music, or perhaps as background music for an event. I hope that brass players of all standards enjoy these arrangements, which demonstrate the sheer beauty of melodic and harmonic invention within the genre.

Felix Rigg

Parts included:

  • Score
  • Trumpet 1 in B-flat
  • Trumpet 2 in B-flat
  • Horn in F
  • Trombone
  • Tuba