Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement with Vocal

Description: Swing - Difficult

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

Arranged by Johnny Mandel for Frank Sinatra's 1961 album 'Ring-a-Ding-Ding!,' this setting of Cole Porter's 'In the Still of the Night' is a wonderfully creative and lush interpretation of a challenging and infrequently covered entry in his wonderful catalog of songs. The arrangement covers quite a bit of emotional ground, and will require a combination of strength and subtlety from your ensemble to properly execute.

Some gentle pads at the beginning establish a serene mood before Sinatra enters with the melody at measure 5. This mood continues to define the first portion of the melody, with most of the ensemble backgrounds being more subliminal in nature, with a notable exception of a brief woodwind riff at measure 23. It's not until a syncopated brass riff at measure 33 that the intensity starts to ramp up a bit, with the ensemble taking on a more demonstrative approach for most of the rest of the melody.

A brief return to serenity occurs at measure 69 that, when executed properly, creates an impending sense that something big is about to happen. That thing, the ensemble shout chorus, commences eight measures later. The brass handles the main melody, with the saxes filling in the gaps for the most part, bar some Frank Rosolino trombone fills around measure 93. This shout chorus is unusually long compared to other Sinatra vehicles, and it's also a bit of a blow for the brass section in general. Sinatra makes his triumphant return at measure 109, with the band continuing to prod him along in a delightful fashion. Just as it feels like things are going to break open again, the arrangement returns to the lush pads of the introduction, subtly shifting harmonically around Sinatra's final held note before a light and breezy trumpet figure brings things to a crisp and clean close.

There are two versions of this arrangement: one for full studio orchestra, and one for big band. It was not uncommon for Sinatra to employ reduced versions of studio orchestra arrangements while touring due to string sections not always being readily available. The big band version is based off of a set of reduced parts that incorporate the string parts from the original recording into the woodwinds and brass. The studio orchestra version contains string parts reconstructed from the reduced parts.

This publication was based on a set of parts from Frank Sinatra's touring library - this is not a transcription.

 

Full Score
Vocal
Woodwind 1: Clarinet/Alto Saxophone
Woodwind 2: Flute/Alto Saxophone
Woodwind 3: Clarinet/Tenor Saxophone
Woodwind 4: Clarinet/Tenor Saxophone
Woodwind 5: Bass Clarinet/Baritone Saxophone
4 Trumpets
3 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Guitar
Celeste/Piano
Acoustic Bass
Drum Set

Vocal Key: Eb
Trumpet 1: F6
Trombones 1 and 3: Bb4