Review

Various
Summertime, ’Round Midnight, My Funny Valentine, and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square:

, United Kingdom
Publisher: TurnedOnMusic
Date of Publication: 2004
URL: http://www.TurnedOnMusic.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Jazz Material - ensemble
Secondary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 4 trombones

Trombonist Richard Cross has released the above four and some fifteen more arrangements of jazz, pop, and film music for jazz trombone quartet, covering many of them on his own self-played 2011 compact disc “A Walk on the Wild Slide” (TurnedOnMusic TMC-001).

Summertime, all parts in bass clef, infers a slow swing interpretation of the tune, via dotted-eighth and sixteenth passages versus eighths, in D minor and A minor before returning to both keys in a Latin vein, winding towards a slow swing finish. ’Round Midnight, all parts in bass clef and in A minor, shares the tune among the top three chairs. Its second chorus enters a double-time or more swing feel, with an opportunity to showcase the bass player’s pedal range. A third chorus slows to the original tempo and crosses swing and straight eighths, and its bridge swings with a walking-bass line before returning to even eighths to close.

Valentine, in bass and tenor clef, offers a pleasant ballad pace in A minor that picks up mid-stream for lines passed between the upper two players, leading to an almost Latin section. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, all parts in bass clef, begins with a chorale in A-flat and a lightly triplet-swung bridge. A modulation to F passes the melody to the grateful third and fourth trombones, yielding to the second chair for an eight-bar written or improvised solo, chord changes provided. The recap in B-flat is led alternately by the top three bones while the others provide lovely counterpoint, closed by a chorale.

Ranges rise to b-flat1 or c2 for the upper parts and descend to C for the bass, with an occasional pedal option. Scores are spiral bound to lay flat; parts are printed on cardstock and all are clear. Though rhythm-section parts are not scored the arrangements do not stray so far from the originals that such parts could not quickly be created by the purchaser if desired.

When improvised-solo space is included the arranger includes an optional written solo. Among the four pieces reviewed, however, rarely does he includes the chord changes with the written solos, forcing the ad-libbing performer to infer the progressions from the score or another version of the tune. Nor does he suggest most locales for breathing: for example, it is not unusual to see 10, 20, 30, or even 40 successive measures pass in the bass part of Valentine without a notated rest or breath mark. So be prepared to make such ensemble decisions in rehearsal. These arrangements are playable by good university or strong high school students and provide valuable repertoire for the jazz trombone quartet genre.

-Antonio J. García
Virginia Commonwealth University