TromboneChat

One of the amateur big bands I play in has asked the bone section to suggest a couple of "bone feature" charts to add to our book. We added Gordon Goodwin's "It's Not Polite to Point" recently and had a lot of fun with it. I would appreciate suggestions.

Kenton's version of "Here's That Rainy Day" arranged by Dee Barton.

Raw Bones by Dave Wolpe. From his website it’s $25.

Check your email.

One band I played with did an arrangement of "How High the Moon" that had solos for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd so we considered that a Trombone Feature. Don't remember who the arranger was, though.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:42 pm One band I played with did an arrangement of "How High the Moon" that had solos for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd so we considered that a Trombone Feature. Don't remember who the arranger was, though.

That’s a Wolfe arrangement. Easy enough to open up the solos.

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 10:12 am Raw Bones by Dave Wolpe. From his website it’s $25.

I'm still mourning the passing of Dave Wolpe in October.

https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php? ... pe#p191739

We played several of his arrangements at a gig (holiday ball) last night - lots of dancers having a great time!
Hope his charts are still readily available.

Posaunus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 8:24 pm

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 10:12 am Raw Bones by Dave Wolpe. From his website it’s $25.

I'm still mourning the passing of Dave Wolpe in October.

https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php? ... pe#p191739

We played several of his arrangements at a gig (holiday ball) last night - lots of dancers having a great time!
Hope his charts are still readily available.

His website is still up and there are a fair number of arrangements available by way of an immediate $25 PDF download.

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 10:05 pm

Posaunus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 8:24 pm I'm still mourning the passing of Dave Wolpe in October.
https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php? ... pe#p191739
We played several of his arrangements at a gig (holiday ball) last night - lots of dancers having a great time!
Hope his charts are still readily available.

His website is still up and there are a fair number of arrangements available by way of an immediate $25 PDF download.

I guess I should order and download the Raw Bones charts while I can!

There's a bunch out there:
God Rest Ye Merry Trombones - Kubis
Four Others - Giuffre
Bag a Bones - Hefti
Four (in three) - Crotty
My Buddy - Wolpe

We did "My Buddy" in my senior center dance band and it was great. Solos for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (just like "How High the Moon").

If you just want to feature 1st and 2nd, there's a thing called "Two Bone Barbecue" (based on "Struttin' with some Barbecue"). I think it's another Wolpe.

An old Thad Jones/Mel Louis chart: Backbone.

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. Please keep them coming. Here are a couple of suggestions I've gotten offline:

"It's Just Talk" -- Bob Curnow arrangement of a Pat Metheny tune.
Donna Lee -- Matt Catingub big band.
Tiptoe -- Thad Jones/Mel Lewis

Lots of Basie stuff!

Teddy the toad - Neal Hefti (Atomic Mr. Basie album)
The Four of Us - Sammy Nestico (SWR Bigband record on YouTube)
88 Basie Street - sort of a feature. Also Sammy arrangement.

There's also this fun arrangement on YouTube of Just Friends:

Frank Mantooth’s Wichita Lineman. Nice ballad, nice section work.

EriKon wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 5:56 pm There's also this fun arrangement on YouTube of Just Friends:

We've tried playing the Masaru Uchibori version of "Just Friends." It's a bear!
More than our trombone section could handle without lots of woodshedding.

Bach5G wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 4:51 pm An old Thad Jones/Mel Louis chart: Backbone.

Despite the title, I'd have a very hard time calling that tune a bone section feature. There's two solis and they're both for the sax section.

One of the big bands I play with has used Backbone as our theme/opener for at least 30+ years. There are several videos of us doing this tune on YouTube, but I chose to post this older one for the killing solo by Andy Hunter at the 5:00 mark!

bassclef wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:21 pm

Bach5G wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 4:51 pm An old Thad Jones/Mel Louis chart: Backbone.

Despite the title, I'd have a very hard time calling that tune a bone section feature. There's two solis and they're both for the sax section.
…

Nice work by Mr Hunter.

I’ve only played the Thad Jones arrangement, which provides solos for the three tenor bones. That’s what it sounds like is going on in the YouTube recording of the TJ-ML band (1970?).

This is the catalogue description of the TJ arrangement:

“As recorded by the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1974 on their Live In Tokyo album, this straight-ahead blues features solo space for piano, three trombones, and drums.”

The TJ arrangement shows off the bone section’s solo chops. Y’all got to put that sax guy in his place.

Bach5G wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:57 pm Y’all got to put that sax guy in his place.

LOL! Well, his name is the first two words in the band's name so...

Bach5G wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:57 pm The TJ arrangement shows off the bone section’s solo chops.

I see what what you're saying. But in that case, any big band tune written since time immemorial which includes a solo section could be used to feature trombone soloists whether or not it was originally arranged and recorded that way.

I suppose I was thinking more in terms of the trombone section as a whole being featured by getting the melody and/or a soli or two.

I've played this solo trombone feature of Angel Eyes. Sounds great, and it isn't even that hard.

https://www.jwpepper.com/Angel-Eyes/2432318.item

How about - A Time For Love - as recorded by the Stan Kenton Orchestra - arranged by Hank Levy - its a beautiful ballad - the lead gets up there and there are some nice harmonies -

Another fun one is - This Could Be The Start Of Something Big - by Steve Allen - arranged by Eric Burger - it's basically taken straight from the Jay and Kai version - not really a full bone section feature - but it's challenging and sounds great ~

Lots of good suggestions here. In fact, I have many of these in my library. If you're having trouble locating some of the more obscure ones, I can probably point you to a source. Inquiries are welcome.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:42 pm One band I played with did an arrangement of "How High the Moon" that had solos for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd so we considered that a Trombone Feature. Don't remember who the arranger was, though.

I was about to suggest this arrangement- it’s Dave Wolpe. There’s a Nestico “God Bless Th’ Child” that I really like.

Blue Daniel - Rob McConnell
Just Friends - McConnell
Tall Cotton - Nestico
March of the Tadpoles - Akiyoshi (difficult masterpiece, imo)

Lennie Niehaus Bone Voyage, available through JW Pepper.

"Girl Talk", arranged by Peter Herbolzheimer. Killer bass bone part.

"Girl Talk" arranged by Peter Herbolzheimer.

Teddy the toad by Neal Hefti
Four others recorded by W.Herman

MaxPirone wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 5:33 pm Teddy the toad by Neal Hefti
Four others recorded by W.Herman

Note that the second chart is called "Four Others" (I think it was intended to be a play on the "Four Brothers" chart that was a Sax feature). Max is not referring to four charts by Woody Herman.

Not you never ear four others?

Trombknes was Urbie Green,Kai Winding,Vern Freely and another one but I forgot

I have somewhere on cd but you never listen that?

Whatever charts you find, choose the simpler ones. There is no train wreck like the train wreck of a section trying to cover the scribbled imagination of a former sax or piano player.

Someone here a couple years ago posted "That's All Right" played by a Worcester, MA band filled with pros. Even though the chart was lifted from Jai and Kai so should be playable, still a massive train wreck.

MaxPirone wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2023 6:43 am Not you never ear four others?
https://youtu.be/eUZ6P01wPo4
Trombknes was Urbie Green,Kai Winding,Vern Freely and another one but I forgot

Frank Rehak - https://www.discogs.com/release/7195488 ... kxNzQyMzA=

Thanks

I like this one called "And Now The News," by Dave Slonaker. He writes well for trombones. Of course, if this is an amateur band you'll have to decide if they have the chops for this.

A few I’ve played recently:

Stan Kenton’ My One and Only Love


Chicken Scratch:

This arraignment of Lament:

I second "a time for love".

There's also a version of "fly me to the moon" that is a trombone section feature.

A couple "A-Train" versions feature the bones heavily too.

Off topic but a true gem:



Frank Rehak, Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland, Eddie Bert

Playing their a.. off but then Ben Webster shows them why a tenor is THE Jazz horn

I'll toot my own horn here, but that's only appropriate on a forum like this, right? (...so the pun is intended!)

https://www.danieleng.com/?product=terr ... of-you-the

This bossa chart is a male-female vocal duet, with a trombone choir part as its main feature before the vocalists get back for the last verse. It's not super easy, but definitely possible to play for a good amateur band. The lead is shadowed by the guitar to mellow the sound a bit, and it can be played on either an alto or a tenor horn. I'll see if I can dig out a recording, and then a way of posting it here (what's on my site is an on-the-fly live recording with an early Zoom version many years ago, I'm not sure where the studio tapes we cut in 2017/18 are ).