Brady

Yay! Upon arriving here at school I took a look over our new songs again, and the two that we kept in the folder were indeed Groove Merchant and Greetings and Salutations. That brings our total of Thad Jones tunes up to four: we also have Walkin' About and Evol Deklaw Ni, which are both a lot of fun as well. I've been a huge fan of Groove Merchant since I played it in another band a few years back, so I'm super excited about getting to play it again. I'm glad you mentioned the Boss Brass too! Being a Canadian myself, I listen to them all the time. Rob McConnell even came to our school a few years ago to play with our band and direct a bunch of his charts. He's quite a character!

I can't remember all the charts we read through, though Groove Merchant was one of them. Tip Toe was one of our performance pieces last year, and the trombones sounded great! Now that you mention it, I think Greetings and Salutations was another that we read. I hope we work on them again next rehearsal!

At our rehearsal this evening the band here at school read through a bunch of Thad Jones charts, and they were great! I've played lots of his stuff before, but I especially enjoyed it tonight. Anyone interested in jazz writing should definitely check him out! I can't wait to rehearse some more of his tunes!

Guitar? Not really. I pick up one of his guitars every now and then to try playing something, but I never get very far. I'm determined to teach myself one day (I've even bought a few beginner guitar books), but so far I haven't had time to persue anything very far.

My pleasure! My dad is a guitar player, so I know a bit more than I should about the instrument :thumbsup:

Here's the book I was thinking of: Sheet Music Plus - Joe Pass Guitar Style (Book/CD) It looks like there are a few other books in the same series, too. A search on Amazon will probably turn up even more, although the most valuable thing to do is probably to transcribe his stuff on your own!

I love his stuff. I'm sure you could learn it on acoustic too. He has a book of studies out, I think. I've heard it's an interesting read.

Consider looking into some Joe Pass. He usually played electric, but his unaccompanied jazz guitar playing was unequaled. A quick youtube search will turn up a lot of good stuff. And there's Django Reinhardt too. He's always the first jazz acoustic guitar player who comes to my mind, but his style is a bit older and usually focuses on more rhythmic chording than finger work.

I'm singing tenor in this piece as well. I don't find it all that difficult, though it's sometimes difficult to concentrate on my part, because I get overeager and start analyzing the rest of the score while we are supposed to be rehearsing!

I had a really strange dream a few nights ago: I think it took place in the 1940s, and it was in black and white! Strange, as I usually dream in colour. Anyway, I was on stage with Duke Ellington's band playing clarinet (of all things), and I had composed all of the music. I remember the audience loving it, and I felt very proud of myself. I was very distressed when I woke up and found it to be only a dream; especially since I couldn't for the life of me remember any of the music!