Big Ugly Blues for jazz orchestra

Okay....here you go. A (relatively) recent composition for jazz orchestra, written over 2 days in July at the Banff Centre and recorded by participants of the 2006 Jazz Orchestra Workshop. Featuring: John 'Bunny' Stewart (tenor sax), Gunhild Seim (trumpet), Jon McCaslin (drums), myself (trombone), Kevin Matthews (alto sax), Marianne Trudel (piano).

It's a fast blues, very mingus-ish in flavor...A bit of performance sketchyness, but what can you so with 1hour rehearsal. Anyway, this'll give you some idea of what I do...hope you enjoy.

Here's the mp3:
Big Ugly Blues

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Outstanding!!!!!
Hot tempo. Love the ugly writing as far as the harmony goes. The recording is really cool too. Love the stop time tenor solo. The quarter notes are great. I appreciate the variety in the solo sections. Ooops got to go. More comments later.

Love the stop time tenor solo. The quarter notes are great. I appreciate the variety in the solo sections....

Yeah - like I mentioned in your thread, it can work. In my case, it almost didn't. Had the tenor raged through with strict time/8th-notes we wouldn't have run into any trouble... BUT, whatever...

...I like changing the solo sections up, keeps the listener invested. Especially with a blues, where there's little harmonic material to work with, repeating the same backgrounds gets tiresome and focuses more responsibility on the soloist...

Thanks for checking it out!

Hey Robin, do you still have an mp3 of that? Maybe it's just the link got outdated..eep, I should have listened earlier!

lol, I'm having bad luck with your links over the last day bad coincidence, hehe.


edit: actually I just noticed that it was file lodge hosting it, I use them sometimes too and they're erratic. I'll try again tomorrow to see if they've got their service up and running again. then I shall make useful commentary

Hey Robin, do you still have an mp3 of that? Maybe it's just the link got outdated..eep, I should have listened earlier!

lol, I'm having bad luck with your links over the last day bad coincidence, hehe.
edit: actually I just noticed that it was file lodge hosting it, I use them sometimes too and they're erratic. I'll try again tomorrow to see if they've got their service up and running again. then I shall make useful commentary

Filelodge....yeah - I probably followed you there.

Anyway...it's also available here.

*double checks that the link actually works...*

Eek, thanks! I figured that out right before I read your reply by following the link in your signature from the previous reply of yours that I was reading, to your web site..! ha. Then I figured you probably mentioned that here. So here I am again.

I have zero training in jazz other than hearing it and liking it a lot, so. I know nothing as far as terminology, I'll just give my impressions.

so anyway..

It was fast, it was dirty, it was ugly, I LOVED it!!

Written over two days? wow. And the recording is excellent! Man, that must have been fun to perform!

A bit of performance sketchyness, but what can you so with 1hour rehearsal. Anyway, this'll give you some idea of what I do...hope you enjoy.

one hour rehearsal. I don't know how jazz people do it, hehe...that's wild. Mad.
Heh, if this is what you do, I hope you do it a lot and post it all here.

I tried to follow the score, hahaha...that was a learning experience for me. I haven't seen these types of scores a lot so it was pretty neat to see how one would write out something like that to give to the performers. I've never really had much experience with it before. I should try to learn more about writing for jazz ensembles...it seems pretty fun.

So that's all.

It was fast, it was dirty, it was ugly, I LOVED it!![/b]

Thank-you! I'm really glad you liked it.

Written over two days? wow. And the recording is excellent! [/b]

Yeah - two days. I was amazed, mostly because it was the first thing I'd written in over a year.
Major case of writer's block...I was so stuck in a particular piece that I totally bogged down everything. SO, I abandoned the troublesome chart, totally recalibrated my musical manifesto, and here we are. Also, being in the environment of the Banff Centre for the Arts with some stellar young musicians didn't hurt either...

Thanks again for checking it out!

Originally Posted by giselle

It was fast, it was dirty, it was ugly, I LOVED it!!

I totally agree with giselle!

Loved the theme, simple and functional blues chord progression. The performance could be better, indeed - it sounds like some improvisations could work better!

Yikes, I can't stop humming the theme!

Rock on!

Wow...this is a blast from the past.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

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I've since re-worked the score into half-time - for ease of reading, and so each chorus doesn't take 4 pages.

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Originally Posted by robinjessome

Wow...this is a blast from the past.

I was just late to join the forums. Listened to some other stuff from your webpage! Very-very nice! Good work!