August 2008

August 2008 Newsletter

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Chart season is in full swing here at ejazzlines, as the bright-orange-vested hunter/bandleaders are out in full force in the ejazzlines chart and arrangement preserve. We are happy to say that despite our customers' tremendously appreciated generosity with us early this season, the chart herds are constantly expanding, in quality, volume and variety, and our September selection is truly outstanding. There are about 165 brand new charts this month, with the newest from Hal Leonard and Jazz Lines Publications leading the way. This month we also feature the entire new line of 2008 offerings from two of our favorites, Sierra Music and Walrus Publications, with dozens of great new charts from some of the world's very best arrangers. All in all, we feel that our selection, service, and prices can certainly offer any band director an unmatched resource for their music needs.

Some of our most interesting new offerings this month are three brand new DVDs filmed live at Pittsburgh's Manchester Craftsman's Guild. They feature Bob Mintzer's Big Band (OK, maybe we seem to feature some book, DVD, CD or chart with Bob every month - he does really get around!), the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra led by our friend and Jazz legend Dr. David Baker, and Alone Together with bassists Rufus Reid and Peter Ind. We also finally received some elusive copies of the popular new Monty Alexander live DVD. August's books feature a brand new release teaching how to play standards in the style of Oscar Peterson, with notes and a helpful CD. Hal Leonard has also just issued a new Benny Goodman play-along, as well as the fourth volume of their popular Big Band Play-Along series, featuring jazz classics. Stay tuned as the newest from each publisher will be quickly added to our new release pages as more new 2008 school-year publications become available.

New DVDs:
August's DVDs feature the first live release of the Bob Mintzer Big Band. Featuring great players taking on all kinds of styles, this concert is sure to please all of Bob's many fans. The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the performance of Rufus Reid and Peter Ind at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild are two more in what we sincerely hope will be a long line of live performances from the legendary Pittsburgh venue. We also have a brand new Tony Bennett DVD of a performance from Canada thought to be lost; Tony leads a big band through many of his signature tunes. We just discovered a wonderful DVD of Freddie King appearing on TV from 1966. The Craft of Piano Playing is a new lesson aspiring to present fresh new ways to approach the topic. Finally, in our continuing effort to present a great Latin Jazz selection, we have two new DVDs from Salsa greats Tito Nieves and Tony Vega.

New Books:
Hal Leonard takes the lead this month, with another edition in their Big Band Play-Along series. Volume 4, Jazz Classics, comes in eight different editions, and takes the player through big band-style versions of some of the greatest tunes of the 1950s and 1960s, many of which are normally associated with small groups, making this an especially interesting and valuable lesson. Oscar Peterson Plays Standards and the Benny Goodman Play-Along are both outstanding tutorials on the styles of two of the most important figures in American music history. Jamey Aebersold just made us aware of Basic Theory for Electric Bass, and Brushworks: The New Language for Playing Brushes. Mel Bay has also issued quite a few new guitar books this month, led by several reissues of fantastic Frank Vignola books. We also again enthusiastically mention Chuck Sher's latest, Barry Finnerty's Serious Jazz Book II. It is not without reason that Chuck's publications are among the most eagerly-awaited in the industry. Advance's new Ultimate Play-Along for Jazz Drummers and the recent Charles Colin reissues of the now 3-volume Clifford Brown Transcriptions are also items from July which should not be missed, as is Joe Weidlich's new book Bebop Guitar.

New Big Band Arrangements:
In our Jazz Lines Publications series we have 2 new vocal arrangements this month. First is Hal Mooney's chart of the standard Hey There as arranged for Helen O'Connell. Like most of our arrangements, this is not a transcription, it has been engraved from the original manuscript. We're happy to provide a vocal arrangement of this standard as there isn't another one currently available. In our expanding Frank Sinatra series we have Nelson Riddle's arrangement of Blue Moon from the 'Swingin' Session and More' record. This classic Sinatra chart features a half chorus tenor saxophone solo which we have written out in full, though chords are supplied in the event that your tenor player wished to improvise instead. Sierra Music has just released several more Doc Severinsen arrangements including April in Paris, Body and Soul, Do Nothin' Til You Hear from Me, How Long Has This Been Going On, I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, Isn't She Lovely, and more. In addition, Sierra has also has published more Stan Kenton and Benny Carter charts, and a few more Bob Curnow arrangements of Pat Metheny's tunes. And, if that wasn't enough, Walrus has just released their new Fall 2008 offerings which include some charts by Gordon Goodwin, Phil Kelly, Tom Kubis, Neal Finn, Tim Hagans, and Mike Dana.

New Release Summary:
In our labor-intensive and world-renowned effort to present everything that is new and interesting, as of this newsletter we have added a total of 38 new CDs for the month of August 2008 and 73 for the month of July 2008; 15 new DVDs for August 2008 and 24 for July 2008; 30 new music books for August 2008 and 54 for July 2008; 165 new big band and combo arrangements for the month of August 2008 and 93 for the month of July 2008.

If you haven't visited our Imports and Rarities section lately, please check it out. We are now stocking more and more obscure, rare, and hard-to-find titles from Japan and Europe, including many titles that you may not be able to find elsewhere.

In our DVD section, we now carry nearly 1,700 jazz DVDs!

Please keep in mind that many of our new releases are available in limited quantities. We do our best to predict demand and fill orders as quickly as possible, but we do run out of new releases. Even if we run out of stock, almost everything featured in this newsletter should be available to ship within 5-7 days; some imports may take 2-3 weeks.

As always, we are here for all of you and we truly appreciate all of the support we continue to receive. While we know everyone has many choices in the jazz retail world, we aspire to provide the best one-stop source for jazz recordings, DVDs, charts, and educational materials. Please accept our continued gratitude for your support, and please let us know anytime what we are doing right and what we need to improve. And enjoy your summer!

Doug and Rob at ejazzlines