Edition: Jazz Septet Arrangement

Description: Swing - Medium

Longtime Count Basie trumpet star Joe Newman, beginning in 1954, recorded a series of small group albums including: Joe Newman and the Boys in the Band, All I Wanna Do Is Swing, I Feel Like a Newman, Rompin' with the Count's Men, I'm Still Swinging, The Midgets, Jazz for Playboys, The Happy Cats, and Joe Newman with Woodwinds. Most arrangements were written by Ernie Wilkins, but Manny Albam and Al Cohn also contributed to these sessions.

Ernie Wilkins's arrangement of the old standard Careless Love distills the classic Basie sound down to its core essence in a way that expertly balances tight ensemble work with an easy ability to open things up for extended solos. This was recorded in 1955 for the Rompin' with the Count's Men album.

Taken at a medium pace, Newman's trumpet leads the way through the melody and as the first soloist. The rest of the horns play some simple backgrounds behind the first two trumpet choruses before things get opened up for the rest of the band to stretch out. In lieu of a repeated melody, Wilkins opts to follow the solos with a shout chorus that features a few simple, but nevertheless surprising, harmonic twists and rhythmic devices. Be sure to keep the mood swinging and mellow throughout, even when the volume ramps up a bit at the end.

To allow for performance flexibility, we have included an optional alto sax part that can be used as a substitute for the first tenor sax part.

This publication was prepared using Ernie Wilkins's original pencil score - this is not a transcription.

 

Full Score
2 Tenor Saxophones
Trumpet
Trombone
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drum Set
Alto Saxophone (Alternate Part for Tenor Sax 1)

Trumpet: Bb5
Trombone: Ab4