Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement (Score Only)

Description: Swing - Advanced

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

SCORE ONLY

Recorded in 1956, Dimples serves as a great example of Johnny Richards's highly unique arranging style. It both simultaneously harkens back to his work for the Stan Kenton Orchestra while finding ways to break out and plot its own course forward, with a heavy emphasis on providing a framing device for instrumental soloists.

The arrangement's extended introduction has a cinematically eerie quality to it, its pecking percussion and fluttering winds sounding like something that wouldn't be out of place in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Despite the unnerving beginning, once the melody commences at letter 19, the performance generally takes on a much brighter tone. A gentle chorale in the trombones and saxes is eventually counterbalanced by a muted trumpet solo that floats over the top.

At the end of the melody, the arrangement returns to more ominous territory for a short send-off before becoming a lengthy showcase for the many talented instrumentalists Richards assembled for this session. The background figures behind each soloist manage to be both true to Richards' identity while adjusting to the soloists' individual personalities, from the casual coolness of Richie Kamuca's tenor sax to the explosive virtuosity of Maynard Ferguson's trumpet. There is never a true shout chorus, per se, with the closest being a sort-of musical tete-a-tete between Charlie Mariano's alto sax and the rest of the ensemble at measure 187. The melody returns, complete with muted trumpet, at measure 211, before wrapping up with a dramatic, Hollywood-esque flair.

Included are optional and alternate parts (see the contents tab).

This arrangement was published during Richards’s lifetime by Private Library, Inc., a company that he co-owned with Kenton bassist Eddie Safranski. However, the introduction was removed and the arrangement was simplified and re-orchestrated to be playable by a standard big band (that edited version was published by Sierra Music).

This publication is the original arrangement that was recorded by the Johnny Richards Orchestra in 1956 for the album Something Else.

Full Score Only

Trumpet 1: E6
Trombone 1: B4