Monday, December 10, 2012

Blue Bossa Big Band Chart

My good friend Dr. Sean Reed has posted a couple of short videos from his band's recent performance of Blue Bossa at Arkansas Tech University. I wrote this arrangement several years ago for the Roberts Wesleyan College Jazz Ensemble but have never managed to get a good recording of the piece, so I'm grateful to Sean for posting this performance.


Monday, December 3, 2012

Ebon Echoes, midi preview

clarinet
And here's another midi demo of a swing ballad for big band with clarinet solo, called Ebon Echoes. It was commissioned by the Hilton High School Jazz Ensemble in Hilton, NY, and will be premiered in February 2013 on their annual "Day of Jazz" concert.

"Ebon" is, of course, a poetic way of saying "ebony", which is traditionally the name for the kind of wood from which the clarinet is made (more accurately, African Blackwood or Grenadilla).