My Jazz Composition - Layin' Down the Cards

[Erave]

A few weeks ago, I composed a small jazz chart for my school's jazz band. I got the honor of hearing them play it at the concert last Thursday. 300 or so people attended and it was quite a highlight for me. I now have two years where I've had a piece played at a concert for me. Last year, they played my band arrangement of "Mario Brothers" and now this year, the jazz piece.

The Jazz Piece is entitled, "Layin' down the Cards." It starts in a "Nasty Funk" and moves into a "Fast Swing" featuring improvers and drum breaks. The end quickly and anti-climaticly leads into a half speed "Nasty Funk" section again, where the drummer takes one bar, and then leads into the last punches of the band.

MIDI: Layin' Down the Cards

The midi playback is a little funky. Some of the instruments swing when they are not supposed to, so it may sound a little off. The piano sometimes has a single note written with a chord symbol on top, and it only plays it for the first beat of the measure. When the drum is playing by itself, that is a drum solo, but it's just a steady beat on the midi. When the swing hits, that's the improv section, it just plays through it twice, with background in the back. Not ALL accents and ornaments are played in the midis. Finale really can't do playback well .

Finale File: Layin' Down the Cards

If you have Finale 2002 you can look at the score.

Live Recording: Layin' Down the Cards

This is the LIVE RECORDING of the song played on Thursday, May 14th, at my band concert. There's a little bit of fuzz and bumps that's my fault, using the mic to record it from the TV to the computer. (I'll get a better recording tomorrow.) And of course, there's clapping between the solos .

I'd love to get another jazz band to play it, and possibly get a recording of it. Anybody in a jazz ensemble and might want to read it? You see... last year the directors decided not to make a cd of our songs. So I did not get a recording of Mario. But I have this pretty recording of it now.

Anyway, tell me what you think. If you want the sheet music, I can hook ya up .

Finale Font Folder (contains Jazz Font)

Thanks,

Tyler J. Mire

Edited May 17, 2004 by Erave

[Joe G]

Hi Tyler,

I briefly checked out the chart and gave a listen to the MIDI playback. I'm hesitant to make any judgements based on that; as you stated, the MIDI isn't especially musical. But, I did hear some interesting (and pleasing) movements in the voices in the early section. I can't say if all the different feels work together well; I'd have to hear an actual band play it to get a real sense of that.

Just keep at it. If the work is true, then you will no doubt attract the right musicians to help you bring it to fruition. If it takes a few years, so what? Time is all we have.

Best of luck!

Joe

p.s., the Musicians Forum would be the best choice for something like this, I would say. But, no biggie.

[Erave]

Joe:

I was quite hesitant to combine a funk and swing feel as well. Our drummer seemed to flow well into the double time swing feel, and the transition wasn't too bad.

Thanks for comments.

[Erave]

Here's a recording I managed to make.

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~erave/Jazz.mp3

I'll try and up the quality later.

[scottb]

Yeah, the recording is a bit rough. (Anytime a TV is involved in the mastering process there's going to be trouble. )

The transition from funk to swing is kinda like going from pickles to ice cream. But on their own each section was pretty cool. Keep it up!

By the way, are you also playing in the band or did you only compose the music?

[Erave]

Yeah, the recording is a bit rough. (Anytime a TV is involved in the mastering process there's going to be trouble. )

The transition from funk to swing is kinda like going from pickles to ice cream. But on their own each section was pretty cool. Keep it up!

By the way, are you also playing in the band or did you only compose the music?

I didn't play with the group, I wanted to listen in front.