Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement

Description: Swing Bolero - Difficult

Publisher: Jazz at Lincoln Center

One of the most essential elements that made Ellington a great composer was his ability to keep growing over the course of half a century. Take a moment and listen to his first recordings from 1924 (Rainy Nights and Choo-Choo) and try to imagine what he might have thought then if he heard this piece, which was written and recorded almost forty years later. As jazz expanded and grew, Ellington took everything in stride, and found ways to incorporate new sounds into his own style. This piece comes from an album issued in 1963 as Afro-Bossa. Some of the music was adapted from earlier pieces, and some was brand new, like this one.

Afro-Bossa is a wonderfully strange and important piece of Ellingtonia because it is a great example of Ellington integrating the blues into his writing—as he did so often. The moods seamlessly shift between very abstract concepts and various styles of swinging blues.

Full Score
Woodwind 1: Alto Sax
Woodwind 2: Alto Sax/Clarinet
Woodwind 3: Tenor Sax/Clarinet
Woodwind 4: Tenor Sax
Woodwind 5: Bari Sax/Bass Clarinet
Woodwind 5 (Alternate): Bari Sax
4 Trumpets
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Bass
Drums

Trumpet 1: G6
Trumpet 2: Eb6
Trombone 1: C5