January 2023 Ushers in More New Historic Arrangements!
Frank Sinatra's The Lady is a Tramp
Nat 'King' Cole's Thou Swell
Ella Fitzgerald's Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
Oliver Nelson's Message (from Afro/American Sketches)
The Terry Gibbs Dream Band's Stardust
January's New Arrangements pages have started 2023 with a very strong group of new historic arrangements, and we have a lot more planned for the coming months. All five of the following new Jazz Lines Publications releases were prepared using original scores and/or parts from the recording sessions; they are not transcriptions.
First off is another of the best-loved tunes from the Frank Sinatra catalog, The Lady Is a Tramp.Billy Byers's arrangement became a staple of Frank Sinatra's live performances, and it's not hard to see why. The chart does a masterful job of packing in a surprising amount of content for the band while managing to never step over the vocal melody at any time.
The combination of Nat 'King' Cole's unforgettable voice and Nelson Riddle's masterful arranging make their version of Thou Swell arguably the definitive jazz interpretation of the old classic. Recorded live at the famed Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1960, this arrangement can serve equally well as an opener, closer, or mid-performance interlude.
Nelson Riddle wrote this version of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man for Ella Fitzgerald's 1963 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Jerome Kern Song Book. Riddle changes things up for this arrangement and produced a score featuring 5 flutes, 5 horns in F, and cellos along with the more traditional sound of 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and rhythm section.
Oliver Nelson's Afro/American Sketches, composed and recorded in 1961, began as an idea courtesy of Prestige Records' director of A&R, Esmond Emmonds. After spending time studying the musical traditions of nearly 200 tribes, Nelson composed the entirety of the suite in a little less than two weeks. Its seven movements follow a story that begins on the African continent, suffers the evils of slavery, experiences the temporary joy of rediscovered freedom, expresses the pain of societal oppression, and looks with optimism toward a future that embraces equal rights for all people. Message is Movement 1. This would be the first big band album of Nelson's career, and can arguably be considered his strongest.
One of the things that makes Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust such a special song is that it can effortlessly be performed in a wide variety of ways. This Bill Holman arrangement for the Terry Gibbs Dream Band is slow in tempo, but ranges the entire dynamic gamut of which a big band is capable.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Our recent agreement with Glenn Miller Productions should result in a new Jazz Lines Publications Glenn Miller Series beginning soon. We also will soon begin publishing quite a few more of the charts from Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book record. And our dedication to offering the largest selection of jazz arrangements available in PDF download form will continue to offer you more choices every week.
We are pleased to present below a very important book about someone who has been a central part of Jazz Lines Publications virtually since its inception, the great Gerry Mulligan. Gerry left behind many recordings which have finally been catalogued and edited to allow this most interesting and versatile of musical figures to tell his story in his own words. Baritone saxophone pioneer, visionary bandleader, composer/arranger of historically important works, and collaborator with many of the biggest names in the jazz genre, it is fair to call Gerry a Jazz Renaissance Man. We are proud to publish much of his legendary catalog in collaboration with his gracious and generous widow Franca. We highly recommend this new chronicle of one of the greatest lives in jazz history.