Edition: Jazz Paperback Book

Description: 166 Pages

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

Thad Jones - cornetist, bandleader, and composer - is one of the most influential arrangers in jazz history. His big band arrangements are published and known worldwide; it is safe to say that every professional and school jazz band library contains at least one, if not a dozen, Thad Jones arrangements.

In contrast, Thad's many small-group compositions contained in this book are far less widely known. These miniature gems are every bit as ingenious and musically challenging as his large-group works. They are always musical and unusual, featuring unexpected harmonies, angular melodies, melodic counterpoint between the horns, and rhythmic counterpoint between the melody and rhythm section. Every Thad Jones composition is its own unique adventure. Beyond that, a number of these small-group tunes are the musical ‘parents’ of future Thad Jones big band classics.

Many of these small-group compositions were featured on Thad’s solo albums (detailed in the Discography section), again far less known than the recordings by the big band he co-led with Mel Lewis. The earliest of these tunes were recorded on his first album as a small group leader under the guidance of Charles Mingus on Mingus’s Debut Records label in 1954, then for decades afterward on various solo recording projects that continued after he moved to Denmark in 1978.

Thad Jones’s original compositions were also featured on albums where he appeared as a sideman or co-leader, with such artists as his brothers, Hank and Elvin Jones, as well as his fellow Detroit musicians, several former Count Basie bandmates, and others: Frank Wess, Billy Mitchell and Al Grey, Stanley Turrentine, Blue Mitchell, Ben Webster, Louie Bellson, Harry James, and many more. After his death in 1986, a number of artists recorded complete CDs of Thad’s small-group music, including Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, and Scott Robinson, and a two-album series was recorded in 2004 by an all-star group that included Frank Wess, Benny Golson, Jimmy Owens, Roland Hanna, Hank Jones, Richard Davis, and Kenny Washington.

Notes:

This book is an effort to bring definitive versions of these small-group Thad Jones compositions the wider attention and recognition that they deserve. They are transcribed as precisely as possible from the original recorded versions. These are not new arrangements; they are Thad’s original versions, note for note. This book also includes a discography, listing source recordings for all compositions in this volume, as well as a Thad Jones biography, and information about the Thad Jones Archive at William Paterson University that is the basis of this project. The transcriptions provided here contain the details needed to create a full performance of each tune, as close to the original recorded performance as possible.

Important Notes:

This book uses a lead sheet format throughout. Two- or three-horn tunes are written using single staves; four- or five-horn tunes use a grand staff format to separate the horns. Some of the multi-horn tunes would undoubtedly be better expressed with a full score and parts, which is not possible here due to the limitations of space and length.It is probable that the original sheet music for a number of these arrangements would have contained notated basslines and separate rhythm section parts; Thad included specific basslines on nearly all his big band arrangements (that’s right: those Kendor basslines are Thad’s, not the publisher’s), and they are on the two small-group scores that are in the Thad Jones Archive. However, because these original parts and scores are largely lost, the only viable route to publishing this collection was to use a lead-sheet format, including as many harmonic and melodic details as possible. Publishing each of these arrangements separately with complete scores and parts is another much larger project, hopefully to be undertaken if the original manuscripts are ever discovered. Tempo markings are meant as a guide, indicating as nearly as possible the tempo of the original recording. In some cases where there are multiple source recordings, a tempo range is listed.

A note about two tunes that are among Thad’s most famous big band arrangements but are not included in this book: Groove Merchant was composed by Jerome Richardson, and A-That’s Freedom was written by Hank Jones. This is a Thad-only volume, and the copyright issues make their inclusion difficult.

Transcriber/Editor Dr. David Demsey:

David Demsey is a saxophonist, and is Jazz Studies Coordinator and Curator of the Living Jazz Archives at William Paterson University, containing the Thad Jones Archive. His widely known transcription book John Coltrane Plays Giant Steps contains all 96 existing available choruses of Coltrane’s improvisations on his landmark tune. He also published two books on composer Alec Wilder, and his Improvisation and Concepts of Virtuosity is the final essay in the Oxford Jazz Companion. A longtime Saxophone Journal contributing editor, his articles appear in Down Beat, Instrumentalist, Jazz Educators Journal, Jazz Player, and Journal of Jazz Studies, and he wrote liner notes for four Verve Records CDs, including Listen to Art Farmer and the Orchestra, Kenny Burrell and Gil Evans’s Guitar Forms, and Verve Jazz Masters releases for Lester Young and Ben Webster.

As a saxophonist, he has appeared with trumpeters Clark Terry and Randy Brecker, pianists Mulgrew Miller, James Williams, Bill Charlap, and Jim McNeely, with bassists Rufus Reid, Steve LaSpina, Todd Coolman, and Marcus McLaurine, and drummers Horace Arnold, Bill Goodwin, John Riley, and Winard Harper. He is a member of the Phil Woods Big Band, now the Water Gap Jazz Orchestra, and played for two decades in the big band co-led by Dick Meldonian and Sonny Igoe. He has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1999 including two DVDs, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic since 1994 including an all-Gershwin CD and two world tours. He was a member of the American Saxophone Quartet for ten years with two CDs, and now performs with the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. He is a Selmer Saxophone Clinician, and has presented clinics, workshops, and master classes at over 90 schools, colleges, and universities.

5021/50-21
Ah, Henry
Ain’t It the Truth 12 Ain’t Nothin’ Nu
Al-amo
All My Yesterdays
All of Us
Billie-Doo
Bird Song
Bitty Ditty
Blues for the Joneses
Blues for Sal [see Thad’s Blues]
Blues for Stan
Bluish Grey
Brother Peabody
Buster’s Last Stand
Buzz-At
Child Is Born, A
Cross Purpose (aka Crossed Peppers)
Don’t Ever Leave Me
Elder, The
Elusive
Evol Deklaw Ni
Facile
Forever Summer
Forsythia
Friday the 13th [see Taste Time]
H & T Blues
I Got It Thad (And That Ain’t Bad)
Instant Blues Disinstant
Interloper
Keepin’ Up with the Joneses
Kids Are Pretty People
Lady Luck
Let’s
Let’s Play One
Like Old Times
Little Juicy, A
Little Pixie, The
Little Rascal on a Rock
Liz
Lizard, The
Lust for Life
Mean What You Say
Minor on Top
More of the Same
More Than Once
Nice and Nasty
No Refill
One More
Opus de Blues
Portion/Portions
Quiet Lady
Quiet Sip
Quietude
Quittin’ Time
Ray-El
Salute to the Bluebird/5021
Scratch
Sho Nuff Did
Slipped Again
Sombre Intrusion
Sput ‘N’ Jeff
Struttin’ Down Broadway [4-horn version of ‘Tis]
Subtle Rebuttal
Summary, The
T‘N’A Blues
Tarriff
Taste Time [see Friday the 13th]
Thad’s Blues/Blues for Sal
Thad’s Pad
Thadrack
Thedia
Three and One
Tiger Lilly
Tip Toe
‘Tis/Struttin’ Down Broadway
To You
Tow Away Zone
Trey of Hearts
Upon Reflection
Walkin’ About
Waltz You Swang for Me, The
Yours and Mine
Zec