October 2008

October 2008 Newsletter

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We are extremely pleased to be among the very first to offer you the brand new Series 3 of the incredible Jazz Icons DVDs! The new series consists of another outstanding and diverse lineup, featuring Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Lionel Hampton, Nina Simone, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and a specially-priced box set with all of these plus an 8th disc, which is only available in the box set. For the great many of you who have been generous enough to purchase some of the discs from the first two series from us, we thank you yet again, and we are very proud to be able to offer these to you on the very first day of their availability.

Jazz Lines Publications continues its growth, with an expanding catalog of 26 of our very own arrangements. The most recent is Sinatra's Love Walked In and the next one which will be coming soon is a female vocal arrangement of the Gershwin standard But Not for Me. We will continue to add more classic tunes, many not previously available, in order to further our commitment to offer not only the very best that is out there from our fellow publishers, but to truly contribute to improving the overall library of arrangements in existence. We strive to offer the very best one-stop shopping experience for the bandleader and educator, and our Jazz Lines Publications series will continue to be a leading light in this effort.

October's highlight is surely the new Jazz Icons Series 3 DVDs, but we do of course have many other new items as well. Drum fans will be happy to know that a compilation DVD of the very best of the Modern Drummer Festival from 1997-2006 is now available. Hal Leonard has just released Volume 5 of its Big Band Play-along series, Christmas Favorites. We are also very happy to announce that our friend Caris Liebman has just provided us with Volume 3 of the very popular and unique Mr. Goodchord series, as well as Mick Goodrick's newest, 36 Solo Pieces for Fingerstyle Guitar. We will continue adding new products as the month progresses, so please check October's pages frequently.

We would like to send a special hello to our very good friends at Jamey Aebersold Jazz, who had a hard time with the effects of the recent hurricane, and despite their troubles, they of course remained open for business and still managed to ship what we needed in a very timely fashion. We send our warmest regards to Jamey, Matt, Gigi, and everyone else there, who are truly the last people we would want to see suffer any sort of hardship. They are the greatest and we wish them the very best.

New Big Band Arrangements:
We recognize that you have many choices of where you may order music from, so we have tried to assemble the most complete and user-friendly online catalog available. We carry nearly 3,000 arrangements from publishers located all over the world. We also have an educational program to provide our vast jazz catalog at discounted prices. All school band directors are automatically enrolled in our program and there is no miminum order to receive discounts. In addition, you may complete purchase orders directly on our website without the need of a credit card. For more information about our educational program, please email or phone us.

If you're hunting for some great jazz band arrangements you may view titles on our website by any of the following criteria: By Month of Release; By Performer (for famous arrangements); By Arranger; By Style; By Difficulty Level; Vocal Arrangements; Instrumental Features; Festival Suggestions; Opener/Closer Suggestions; Holiday Arrangements; Jazz at Lincoln Center Arrangements; and By Group Size (for small group and combo arrangements). If all else fails, contact us; we're happy to assist you with finding what you're looking for.

We have a few noteworthy (pun intended) charts to mention. First is a transcription of And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine as recorded by Anita O'Day with Stan Kenton. This chart is unusual, in that the band gets to sing the choruses and the female vocalist sings the verses, so it makes for a great performance number. We also have a transcription of Artie Shaw's I'm Coming Virginia. This is a very rare chart that features clarinet with cameo tenor and trombone solos. This chart has been scored for 5 reeds and 8 brass (instead of the original 6), and the reeds have been written AATTB, with alto 1 doubling clarinet and taking the solo lines. All of the original solos have been written out, though your players can improvise their own from the chords provided, if they prefer. As recorded by the Count Basie Orchestra, just released is Sammy Nestico's classic arrangement of the Frank Foster jazz standard Shiny Stockings! Including all the signature piano stylings, muted brass on the first strain, sax soli, trumpet solo, and a shout chorus that roars, this timeless chart deserves a place in every band's library. Finally, we have a transcription of the Matt Monro recording of Around the World. The chart opens as an up-tempo swinger, full of great rhythmic punctuations from the band in support of the vocalist in the first chorus. A band tutti follows, which leads to a one step up modulation, then a half-tempo feel change to bring the chart to a rousing finish.

New DVDs:
October's DVDs are led by the new Jazz Icons, and the Modern Drummer compilation, and we do anticipate more excellent releases as the month continues. We do also have all of the Series 1 and 2 Jazz Icons in stock, as well as all three box sets, and a specially-priced option of all three sets together. September's most popular have turned out to be new releases from Hilario Duran and Norah Jones, as well as the re-releases of excellent live performances from Keith Jarrett and the great George Benson.

New CDs:
We have 3 great new releases coming in from Japan later this week. The first one is by all-star drummer Lewis Nash titled Jazz Museum. This session, released on the All-Art label, was recorded live and features reed hero Frank Wess. The second one is a great new bass/piano duo album featuring Richard Davis and Junior Mance titled Blue Monk. King Records recorded this live in Tokyo in 2007 and it features some outstanding playing on 8 well-known standards including Duke Ellington's 'Single Pedal of a Rose.' Lastly, M&I has just released a new Renee Rosnes record titled Black Narcissus. This Joe Henderson tribute session features stalwarts Peter Washington and the aforementioned Lewis Nash. This is a fabulous piano trio date.

New Books:
October's books feature the newest from Mick Goodrick, a very well-respected educator who has just released his book 36 Solo Pieces for Fingerstyle Guitar. This book should nicely compliment Volume 3 of Mick's Mr. Goodchord series, which we now have in stock along with the first two volumes; all three are also available as a set. Along with the aforementioned Christmas play-along, Hal Leonard has also just released Bossa Nova Guitar, which looks like an excellent lesson for guitarists of many levels, and The Jazz Singers, a guide to jazz's greatest vocalists put together by the legendary Scott Yanow, whose encyclopedic knowledge of and respect for jazz of all eras are unmatched. The latest in the Mel Bay Guitar University curriculum is Guitar Studies - Playing Chords, focused on improving accompanying singers. Adrian Ingram's definitive Wes Montgomery biography has just been re-released in a brand new edition, and we are very happy to finally have available again The Music of Oscar Pettiford, a transcription book of the playing of this seminal bassist who left us far too soon. We again mention September's best, which included the Best of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Essential Drum Fills by Peter Erskine, and Fred Lipsius' newest, Playing Through the Blues, available for flute and alto sax.

New Release Summary:
In our time-tested and kid-approved effort to present everything that is new and interesting, as of this newsletter we have added a total of 10 new CDs for the month of October 2008 and 90 for the month of September 2008; 11 new DVDs for October 2008 and 22 for September 2008; 22 new music books for October 2008 and 31 for September 2008; 4 new big band and combo arrangements for the month of October 2008 and 22 for the month of September 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.

We are Rob and Doug at ejazzlines and we approved this message.