September 2009

September 2009 Newsletter

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Hello again from ejazzlines!

The onset of Fall brings the very busiest and most exciting time of the year to ejazzlines. As schools, libraries, and bands all over the world gear up for a new year, we are blissfully swamped with orders from locations scattered all across the globe. We are very glad that our reliable suppliers and publishers have again turned out a great crop of new items for educators, students, musicians, and fans of all styles and levels of jazz. We do our best to make as wide a variety of new items available as possible, and we extend our most sincere gratitude to the very many of you who have made this a record-breaking season for us.

Jazz Lines Publications continues its development and growth with the fourth and fifth in our Supersax chart series, Scrapple from the Apple and Moose the Mooche. These charts join Ah-Leu Cha, Parker's Mood, and Star Eyes in our Supersax line. We are thrilled to be working directly with Med Flory to bring these arrangements to life, and we will continue publishing many more of them over the next few months. Our Jazz Lines Publications catalog now numbers 68 titles, and we are doing our best to add several new ones each month, in addition to continuing to make more of the excellent catalogs of 32 Music, FJH, Lorenz, Barnhouse and other newcomers available as well. Please keep an eye on our new release pages for more exciting charts.

ejazzlines mourns the recent passing of piano legend Eddie Higgins, certainly one of the more prolific pianists of the last fifteen years. Mr. Higgins played with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter on some of their earlier sessions, and in recent years released a string of discs, largely on the Venus label, which were very well received. He will be sorely missed by his legions of fans the world over.

Today's birthday wishes go out to the late and beloved Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, who would have turned 81 today. One of the all-time legendary alto players, Cannonball was a great teacher, bandleader, and sideman, and was by all accounts a wonderful person as well. In his far too short 46 years, he played with giants ranging from Ray Charles to Miles Davis, and his own bands featured players such as his brother Nat, Joe Zawinul, Bobby Timmons, Yusef Lateef, Charles Lloyd, Sam Jones, and Louis Hayes. Indeed, he not only played with the best as a sideman, but he knew how to surround himself with the very best as well.

For those of you who like to keep up with new jazz releases, below are some items that you may wish to know about.

We once again thank everyone for your support - it is sincerely appreciated every day of the year!

Rob and Doug at ejazzlines

FEATURED NEW DVDs: In addition to the below, September's DVDs feature quite a few interesting guitar instructional DVDs from several different styles. We also have an excellent introductory DVD on the use of Finale. Also in stock among August's best are the Dave Holland Quintet Live, the 3-CD/1-DVD set From Johnny Griffin With Love, and Mimi Fox's Jazz Anatomy. ALL SEPTEMBER 2009 DVDs ALL AUGUST 2009 DVDs
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: BORN TO BE WILD This documentary is a close up, gloves-off look at Robbie Williams. The film covers his meteoric rise to fame as a member of the boy group Take That, which he had to leave because of his excessive lifestyle, as well as his solo career as a singer and entertainer, which made him a superstar. The film showcases Robbie Williams not only as an artist, but also as an individual having to struggle with the ups and downs of life.	AT A GLANCE: DVD JAZZ GUITAR The At a Glance series pairs an instructional DVD lesson with a supplemental book for a comprehensive learning experience. The hi-def DVD features on-screen music. The lessons are loaded with valuable tips and information, and popular song examples help to demonstrate the concepts in action. Jazz Guitar At a Glance features four lessons: Beginning Jazz Rhythm Guitar, Jazz-Blues Progressions, Beginning ii-V-I Licks, and Jazz Phrasing. Also includes 20 hit songs.
TOM DOWD AND THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC Historical footage, vintage photographs and interviews with a who's who list of musical giants from the worlds of jazz, soul and classic rock shine a spotlight on the brilliance of Tom Dowd, whose creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music. Tom Dowd's credits include recording sessions with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Otis Redding, John Coltrane, The Allman Brothers Band, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Cream, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Booker T. & the MGs and countless other musical luminaries.	SEE AND PLAY FINGERSTYLE CHRISTMAS Playing your favorite Christmas songs on guitar is fun, and See, Sing & Play Fingerstyle Christmas makes it easy! The book presents eight familiar classics, expertly arranged for fingerstyle guitar by Mark Hanson, in standard music notation and TAB. The DVD teaches you how to play the songs note-for-note, and includes close-ups and split-screen video. Lyrics are included in the book so you and your friends can sing along. Be the life of the Christmas party and learn to play these songs now!

FEATURED NEW BOOKS: Hal Leonard has just published several fine new books, including the Great Standards Collection for male singers, the Easy Twenties Fake Book, World Jazz Drumming, a Tangos piano play-along, and several brand new Christmas books. Our good friends at Jamey Aebersold have just made us aware of two great titles, Shorty Rogers' Jazz Method for Trumpet and Jazz Piano Solos by Frank Strazzeri. Music Minus One continues to issue great play-alongs, and their latest is Swing With a Band, available in editions for five different instruments. ALL SEPTEMBER 2009 BOOKS ALL AUGUST 2009 BOOKS
SAMMY NESTICO: THE GIFT OF MUSIC It seems like Sammy Nestico has been with us for an eternity. His extensive career is multi-dimensional, and started in 1939 as a trombonist during the Swing Era. His career working with some of the most famous entertainers of today and yesterday makes for extraordinary stories. His time spent working with Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer, Marvin Hamlisch, Toni Tenille, Sarah Vaughan, Marvin Gaye, several Presidents of the United States, and an endless list of others is chronicled in this collection of stories. The copies currently in stock are personally autographed by Sammy.	GREG FISHMAN: JAZZ SAXOPHONE ETUDES VOL. 3 Jazz Saxophone Etudes, Volume 3 features twelve melodic etudes for the advancing jazz saxophonist, which focus primarily on medium tempos and demonstrate a melodic approach to soloing with authentic jazz vocabulary. The etudes are catchy, fun to play, and written idiomatically for the saxophone. The etudes are based on popular chords similar to those used on: Rhythm Changes, Blues, Ipanema, Blue Bossa, Perdido, Blue Moon, How High the Moon and many others. Like all of Greg Fishman's books, all saxophonists (soprano/alto/tenor/bari) read the same written part, ensuring that the pieces lay perfectly on the horn, while the rhythm section transposes the accompaniment to accommodate the saxophonist's range.
BIG BAND DRUMMING We let legendary drummer Peter Erskine describe this fantastic new book from Advance Music: "Upon reading Walter Grassmann's new book, I could only think: This is the book I wish I had written. It is the ultimate collection and teaching tool regarding big band fills and set-ups. I recommend it to all instructors and students of the art of playing ensemble music."	JAZZ ETUDES FOR GUITAR Begin your journey to improv mastery and finding your own musical voice! Each etude is based on a standard chord progression and centered on one left-hand position. Everything is carefully crafted to improve playing technique, reading and improv chops of the beginning guitarist, and to increase awareness on melody, harmony and rhythm. The accompanying CD features the author's recorded demos of all 12 etudes, as well as dozens of musical examples.

FEATURED NEW BIG BAND ARRANGEMENTS: SEPTEMBER 2009 BIG BAND CHARTS AUGUST 2009 BIG BAND CHARTS
MOOSE THE MOOCHE: SUPSERSAX Here is the Supersax version of Moose the Mooche as recorded on the 1988 Stone Bird record. Like the other Supersax arrangements that we publish this is not a transcription. The original, hand-written manuscript has been used to produce this arrangement and it has been published with the authorization of Med Flory. This is a very advanced chart exactly as-recorded by Supersax. This particular arrangement was recorded earlier on the 1971 'Supersax Plays Bird' record with trumpet and trombone parts. This later arrangement skipped those brass parts but did feature a trumpet solo by Conte Candoli. There is no trumpet part - he improvised over 'Rhythm Changes.' An open solo section is included.	SCRAPPLE FROM THE APPLE: SUPERSAX Here is the Supersax arrangement of 'Scrapple from the Apple' as recorded on the 1974 'Salt Peanuts' record.
POOR BUTTERFLY Here is another great Billy May arrangement from the Sinatra/Ellington album, recorded in 1967. This May chart is not terribly complicated, though there is a bit of a difficult clarinet run at the beginning written on tenor 1. Then after that 4-bar solo there are only 4 more bars of clarinet, which may be played up an octave on tenor. For most of the chart Duke Ellington provides light fills behind the vocals, so chords have been included. But, he doesn't really comp much at all. And, a guitar part has been included even though there wasn't a guitarist on the recording. This is from the original manuscript; this is not a transcription.	YARDBIRD SUITE: GIL EVANS In 1941 Gil Evans went to New York to write for the Claude Thornhill orchestra. Evans, who was a fan of bebop and modern classical music, was the first jazz composer/arranger to combine elements of both into his groundbreaking arrangements. This arrangement of Charlie Parker's Yardbird Suite is stunning. Evans employs dissonance throughout (often through minor seconds within sections) as well as subtle color and timbre shifts. Arranging for this same Thornhill band was Gerry Mulligan with whom Gil Evans would later break away and form the famous Miles Davis Nonet and record 'The Birth of the Cool.' This arrangement helped establish Gil Evans as a trend-setting, modern jazz composer. This arrangement has been published from the original autograph score and is authorized by the Estate of Gil Evans. This is not a transcription. The original score was arranged for Thornhill's band that included 5 saxophones, 3 trumpets, 2 French horns, 2 trombones, tuba, guitar, piano, bass, and drums. We have modified the original arrangement to make it playable by a standard big band (8 brass) though parts for the original instrumentation are also included allowing for the option of playing it as it was intended. This is a fairly complex arrangement that calls for solos for piano, alto saxophone, and guitar. There are no saxophone doubles.

In our hopelessly devoted effort to present the best selection of interesting new items for you, as of this newsletter we have added 17 new DVDs for September 2009 and 25 for August 2009; 51 new music books for September 2009 and 76 for August 2009; 16 new big band and combo arrangements for the month of September 2009 and 161 for the month of August 2009. We would like to once again respectfully point out that our jazz-related DVD selection continues to grow almost daily, and now weighs in at over 2100 titles. We have the live performance DVDs, the documentaries, the method DVDs, the personal master classes - we proudly offer a selection of jazz and jazz-related DVDs that is truly second to none. As always, 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, everything featured in this newsletter should be available to ship within 1 to 2 weeks.