Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement

Description: Swing - Medium Difficult

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

Part of what makes Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise such a popular standard for jazz musicians is that it can be played in a wide variety of styles. This arrangement by Marty Paich was written for the Terry Gibbs Dream Band in 1959, and falls into a more 'cool' approach for the most part. It's a chart that overall is not too difficult, but has a few moments of extended upper register blowing for the brass players.

Largely riff-oriented, the introduction utilizes a couple of snippets that will appear several times over the course of the performance. One is a short, clipped idea in the saxes and trombones, while the other is a lazier, bluesy line in the trumpets. Gibbs's vibraphone handles most of the melody, first as a solo before being joined by the saxes at measure 17. The brass play an accompanying role until the final A section at measure 33.

For the next few choruses, a series of soloists take turns in the spotlight. Vibraphone gets a full chorus to start things off, followed by half-choruses in the following order: trumpet 4, trumpet 3, tenor sax, and alto sax. A full ensemble shout chorus follows at measure 131, with the wailing brass riffing atop a slippery counter melody in the vibes and saxes, broken up briefly by a piano solo on the bridge. The vibraphone soloist recaps the main melody theme one last time before a short vamp and fade, concluding with one last surprise blast.

This publication was prepared using the original set of parts from Terry Gibbs's library - this is not a transcription.

 

Full Score
Vibraphone Soloist (or C, Bb, or Eb soloist)
2 Alto Saxophones
2 Tenor Saxophones
Baritone Saxophone
4 Trumpets
3 Trombones
Piano
Bass
Drum Set

Trumpet 1: E6
Trombone 1: A4