Customer Reviews

Jazz Arranging and Composing : A Linear Approach

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I studied 2 years with Bill at Eastman in the 70's, and he talked a lot about Ellington's linear approach, how after you transcribed his big band arrangements, you found a lot of seemingly non-sensical vertical sonorities. This book is the fruit of his exhaustive endeavors, and offers a fresh, lucid approach to the understanding of 3-5 part harmonies functioning contrapuntally, as independent linear melody, not flying chord progressions at eighth-note speeds. This book will show you alternatives, and fresh approaches to your harmonic arranging vocabulary.

I just changed my major from Classical Comp to Jazz Comp and I wanted to have a more solid idea of what I was getting into before the semester started, so I bought this book. Although, for some reason, the CD was not included in my copy - either because is fell our or it was stolen - this book has helped me out a lot. I have to play through each example, which I think makes learning the techniques more advantageous. The only down side is the format in which the text it written. It is very blocky and difficult to section out.

This is by far the best text available on writing and arranging for horns and ensemble.