Edition: Jazz Nonet Arrangement

Description: Ballad - Medium

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

Here’s another unusual piece for jazz treatment—Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child—a familiar traditional spiritual.

Bela Bartok said—and I’m paraphrasing here, because I don’t know the exact quote—something to the effect that listeners can be more acutely aware of the composer’s personal expression if the composer bases the music on something familiar to the audience.

This is so familiar, and I've found a way of harmonizing it that stretches and emphasizes its emotional range without breaking the limits of the song’s mood and rendering it unrecognizable. It’s a subtle and detailed process, and it takes countless hours—and not a few revisions, before it resolves itself into its final version—the one that does what my imagination intends. The intro/interlude/ending figure is taken from the bass figure I used to play when playing Gershwin’s Summertime with Bill Evans. It’s now orchestrated—fewer notes in the bass part and more spread into the band.

This has turned out beautifully.

Full Score
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Trumpet
Trombone
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums