Edition: Jazz Big Band Arrangement

Description: Ballad - Medium Difficult

Publisher: Jazz Lines Publications

One of Quincy Jones's most beloved classics, The Midnight Sun Will Never Set is possibly most famous from its 1959 recording featuring the great Phil Woods. This publication is based on the score for a later version written for the Pepe Lienhard Orchestra and is essentially a re-orchestration of the version recorded on Jones's 1961 album I Dig Dancers.

Beginning with a cool, moody brass chorale, the arrangement is an alto sax feature from start to finish. While fairly simple in content, the backgrounds in the rest of the horns find their intricacies in how Jones mixes and matches different groups of instruments together in different combinations. It is of utmost importance for your players to be aware of their place in the orchestration at all times in order to achieve the perfect blend of phrasing and dynamic balance.

Initially taken at a luxuriously slow tempo, there is a brief shift to a double time feel from measure 38 through measure 42, heralded in by a short, knotty line in the flute and muted trumpets. A dramatic build is followed by a sudden drop back to the original whisper-like volume level at measure 47. To bring the performance to a conclusion, an alto sax cadenza is followed first by a short melody in the low brass before a gently descending figure in the flute and trumpets sets up one final solo moment for alto atop a delicate held chord.

Included is an optional flugelhorn part as a alternate for horn in F.

 

Full Score
2 Alto Saxophones
2 Tenor Saxophones (Tenor Sax 1 Doubles Flute)
Baritone Saxophone
4 Trumpets
Horn in F
4 Trombones
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drum Set

Trumpet 1: C#6
Trombone 1: Bb4