Nerve Damage
by Brian Rhodes
Jazz Ensemble - Sheet Music

Jazz band - Intermediate

SKU: TW.J1023

Composed by Brian Rhodes. Full set (score and parts). Conductor's score only available separately: see item J1023s. Conductor's score and set of parts. Twin Towers Music Publications #J1023. Published by Twin Towers Music Publications (TW.J1023).

What innocently begun as a take of "Joshua" and a genuine attempt at writing an interesting part for trombone 3-4 and bari sax (aka "bottom feeders") has turned into this complete harmonic assault that I call "Nerve Damage." There are a ton of chord changes, often times changing on each note of the melody and most of the chords are very complex. Because of this, there are lots of accidentals in all parts, so careful attention to key signature and accidentals carrying through the measure are crucial. There is a long solo section for guitar (or piano) and alto sax. The changes are pretty straight forward, except for the series if unrelated ii-V's in the middle. After the solo section, there is a jungle beat section (a la "Sing, Sing, Sing") where the different horn sections battle one another. There are also several sections where the trombone 3-4, bari sax and bass have running unison lines, so make sure they are not covered up. Overall, this weird swing tune might be just the thing for the contemporary swing genre of any big band's book.