Description

Christopher M. Smith – I’m Confessin’

Harold Arlen – Stormy Weather  

Luiz Bonfá – Black Orpheus

Joseph Kosma – Autumn Leaves

Ben Bernie & Maceo Pinkard – Sweet Georgia Brown

The seventh 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 collection, I’ve commenced with one of my favourite swing standards – I’m Confessin’. Stormy Weather, which follows, will bring back ghastly memories of wannabe jazz singers indulging in a little late-night crooning when they shouldn’t, but it’s still a wonderfully bluesy song! Movie music follows in the form of A Day in the Life of a Fool (featured here under its better-known title from the film of the same name – Black Orpheus). After that comes the evergreen Autumn Leaves, which contains an extended solo section for the tuba. For the final number in the volume, we revisit the world of traditional jazz in the exuberant Sweet Georgia Brown.   

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