State of the Art Swing
by Frank Foster
Big Band - Sheet Music

Big band - Medium to difficult

SKU: WA.51228

Arranged by Frank Foster. Score and parts. Published by Walrus Music Publishing (WA.51228).

The fourth movement of the Count Basie Remembrance Suite, is a medium tempo tune whose main purpose is to swing HARD! No tiptoeing through the tulips on this one, please! Although it starts off fairly subdued it's supposed to build into a nuclear explosion near the end. The piece begins with a Basie-ish piano solo followed by a bass solo, then the saxes enter with a unison melody meant to sound Ellingtonish. Following the opening ensemble choruses the saxes go soli for a couple of bluesy choruses, then two interludes eight measures long introduce successively solos by 1st tenor sax and 4th trumpet. Things heat up after the solos, as the tension has been building all the while. On the final shout chorus there's some scream trumpet (switch parts on this section if the 4th trumpet isn't up to it). On the very end, which all but introduces World War III, trumpet goes up to altissimo A5 several times. Lead trumpet high is D on top of the second ledler line. This chart is only med-difficult, but get your drummer to work with the heavy swing backbeat, get some intensity going with that hard swing feeling, and your audience should be standing on their heads. 5,4,4,G,P,B,D.