Jazz Ensemble

For events please refer to the Band Calendar
All families should be familiar with the Band Handbook.

Reference Recordings for 2024-25

Concert Attire Document

Permission Slips & Itineraries

Jazz Ensemble Auditions

2025 Audition Instructions
AUDITION SUBMISSION FORM

Online Tools

Jazz Academy (FACEBOOK) – Jazz at Lincoln Center Clinics
Jazz at Lincoln Center ONLINE EVERYDAY
Jeff Antoniuk – YouTube & Pdf’s
The Shed – Transcription Resources
Backing Tracks

Success in Jazz starts with LISTENING

Big Band 101!!!
You need to spend some time listening to this YouTube video.
Style, Rhythm Section Roles, Solos, you name it!
Listen and learn….  
Count Basie and His Band LIVE in 1979
Band Band (Thad Jones directing) LIVE in 1985

WATCH THESE!!
Kind of Blue Documentary
How KIND OF BLUE blew up the jazz genre
1959 – The Year that Changed Jazz

 

Transcription Practice

Ideas for Transcriptions

This is far from an exhaustive list, remember you’re not required to choose from this list.  It’s just a list of youtube (or spotify) links that I’m sure will continue to grow, containing some great (and playable!) solos by master jazz improvisers on a variety of instruments.  If you hear one you like, look to acquire a copy of the track in mp3 format so you can begin your own transcription.

1.  All instruments: anything from Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, but especially solos on:

• So What
• Freddie Freeloader
• All Blues

2. Saxophones:

• Lester Young, “Blue Lester”
• Sonny Rollins, “St. Thomas”
• Lou Donaldson, “Blues Walk”

3. Trumpets:

• Preservation Hall Hot 4, “Corinna, Corinna”  – spotify link
• Anything by Chet Baker, here are a couple:
  • White Blues
  • There Will Never Be Another You
  • Blue Mitchell, on “Tru Blue”

4. Trombones:

• Curtis Fuller on “Blue Train” (just choose from the first 1-2 choruses, before the double time feel begins)
• J.J. Johnson, “Blue Bossa” (with Joe Pass)
• Curtis Fuller, “Blue Lawson” (spotify link)

5. Guitar:

• Wes Montgomery, “Movin’ Along”
• Jim Hall, “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To”
• Joe Pass, “Sometimes I’m Happy” (on Oscar Peterson’s Tribute to my Friends) (spotify link)

6. Piano

• Red Garland on “If I Were a Bell” (Miles Davis’ recording)
• Horace Silver, “Song for My Father”
• Barry Harris, “Moose the Mooche”

7. Bass

• Wilbur Ware, solo on Sonny Rollins’ recording of “Softly As in a Morning Sunrise”
• Ray Brown, solo on “Blue Bossa” on The Big 3 (Milt Jackson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown)

8. Drums

• Max Roach, solo on Sonny Rollins’ recording of “Blue Seven”
• Max Roach, solo on “For Big Sid”
• Art Blakey, opening solo on “Evidence”
• (you could also choose to transcribe a few sets of “trading fours” if you’d prefer this to a longer solo, such as Philly Joe Jones’ fours on “Billy Boy” from Miles Davis’ Milestones starting at 4:25)