Who are the Rhythm Red Devils? We are a community jazz band based in Davis County comprising of both seasoned musicians with over 50 years of big band performance and promising jr. high & high school students. The goal is to allow younger musicians that have a passion for music to experience playing side by side with some of the finest musicians in the community. Due to this mix of experience sometimes we experience what can only be described as a train wreck, but this is part of the learning process too.
Here are your Rhythm Red Devils
Reeds
Doug Bailey – Alto Sax/Director Jon Coombs – Flute/Tenor Sax Dale Reese – Tenor Sax Matthew Bailey – Baritone Sax
Trumpets
Camden Beckstrand
Jared Beckstrand Brian Keegan
Trombones
Parker Twelves Zach Allred Parker Zollinger
Rhythm
Nick Moss – Piano Kurt Warren – Bass Rob Griffin – Guitar Ammon Turnblom – Drums
Vocals
Kori Robbins
Dane Anderson
Here is the playlist
1 Tall Cotton
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Arranged by: Sammy Nestico
Page Number: New
Book Number: Red Folder
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 152
Key Signature: C
Time Signature: 4/4
Wonderful trombone feature performed by the Count Basie Orchestra
2 Pure Imagination
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example. Midi file from music editing software MusScore
Year: 1971
Written by: Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley
Arranged by: Connor P. Cummins (adapted for RRD by Doug Bailey)
Since its release, the song has been covered and remixed hundreds of times by a wide variety of artists.[3] The original song was not popular when it was first released. The film itself was not a blockbuster and other songs from the soundtrack performed better. It was not until the movie began appearing on television reruns in the 1980s that the film and "Pure Imagination" became more well known.[2][4]Although the original song never charted, some cover versions have done so.[5][4]
In the week following Wilder's death in 2016, the song rose in streams and sales by more than 1000%.[5] The song was featured in television, radio, and social media tributes to Wilder.[4][6]While it was absent from the 2005 film adaptation Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the song was featured in the 2023 prequel film Wonka, both in its promotional materials and the film itself, sung by Timothée Chalametas Wonka.[7]
3 Summer Wind
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example. May be playable
"The Stripper" is an instrumentalcomposed by David Rose, recorded in 1958 and released four years later. It evinces a jazz influence with especially prominent tromboneslides, and evokes the feel of music used to accompany striptease artists.
The tune came to prominence by chance. Rose had recorded "Ebb Tide" as the A-side of a record. His record company, MGM Records, wanted to get it on the market quickly, but discovered there was no B-side available for it. Rose was away at the time the need for the B-side surfaced. An MGM office boy was given the job of going through some of Rose's tapes of unreleased material to find something that would work; he liked "The Stripper" and chose it as the flip side for the record.
5 It's Oh So Nice
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1968
Written by: Sammy Nestico
Arranged by: Sammy Nestico
Page Number: 65
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 110
Key Signature: Ab
Time Signature: 4/4
No notes available
6 Fancy Pants
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1963
Written by: Carlos Jobim
Arranged by: Glenn Osser
Page Number: 19
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 112
Time Signature: 4/4
The song was composed for a musical comedy titled Dirigível ("Airship"), then a work in progress of Vinicius de Moraes. The original title was "Menina que Passa" ("The Girl Who Passes By"); the first verse was different. Jobim composed the melody on his piano in his new house in Rua Barão da Torre, in Ipanema. In turn, Moraes had written the lyrics in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, as he had done with "Chega de Saudade" ("No More Blues") six years earlier. While firmly rooted in bossa nova, "The Girl from Ipanema" includes influences from blues and Tin Pan Alley.[9]
During a recording session in New York with João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz, the idea of cutting an English-language version came up. Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics. João's wife, Astrud Gilberto, was the only one of the Brazilians who could speak English well and was chosen to sing. Her voice, without trained singer mannerisms, proved a perfect fit for the song.[10] However, she was never credited or received any royalties, and received only $120 for her part.[11]
The key the song is played in traditionally has varied depending upon the origin of the recording. While the original Ribeiro version was in the key of G, most Brazilian performances use D♭ and most American versions use F.[9]
Astrud Gilberto and Getz appear as themselves and perform the song in the 1964 film Get Yourself a College Girl.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song with Jobim in 1967 for their album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim.[12]Ella Fitzgerald recorded it for her two-disc set of Brazilian music Ella Abraça Jobim, released by Pablo Today in 1981. Ethel Ennis and Nat King Cole have also both recorded the song. A version by Gary Criss titled "The Girl From Ipanema / Brazilian Nights" from his album "Rio De Janeiro" reached number 19 in the Canadian RPM dance charts in August 1978.[13]Eliane Elias included the song in her albums Eliane Elias Sings Jobim (1998) and Brazilian Classics (2003).
Lyrics
Tall and tan and young and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes, each one she passes goes "Ah!"
When she walks, she's like a samba That swings so cool and sways so gently That when she passes, each one she passes goes "Ah!"
Oh, but he watch her so sadly How can he tell her he loves her? Yes, he would give his heart gladly But each day, when she walks to the sea She looks straight ahead, not at him
Tall and tan and young and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes, he smiles, but she doesn't see
Oh, but he sees her so sadly How can he tell her he loves her? Yes, he would give his heart gladly But each day, when she walks to the sea She looks straight ahead, not at him
Tall and tan and young and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes, he smiles, but she doesn't see
She just doesn't see No, she doesn't see But she doesn't see
8 Killer Joe
Audio Example: NOTE: This is an example only! You CAN NOT play along with this.Original Benny Golson recording. Follow the style.
Year: 1960
Arranged by: Michael Sweeney
Page Number: 44
Book Number: 1
Time Signature: 4/4
"Killer Joe" was first released on the Jazztet's 1960 album titled "Meet the Jazztet." The composition became one of Benny Golson's most well-known and frequently performed pieces. The tune is characterized by its catchy melody and has been embraced by jazz musicians across generations.
The Jazztet's recording of "Killer Joe" features a distinctive hard bop sound and showcases the talents of the ensemble's members. Over the years, the composition has been covered by numerous artists and has become a jazz standard in its own right. Its enduring popularity is a testament to Benny Golson's skill as a composer and the timeless appeal of the piece.
9 May Each Day
Audio Example: NOTE: This is an example only! You CAN NOT play along with this.
Year: 1963
Written by: George Wyle
Arranged by: Unknown
Page Number: 62
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 73
Time Signature: 3/4
May each day in the week be a good day May the Lord always watch over you And may all of your hopes turn to wishes And may all of your wishes come true
May each day in the month be a good day May you make friends with each one you meet And may all of your daydreams be mem'ries And may all of your mem'ries be sweet
The weeks turn to months and the months into years There'll be sadness and joy, there'll be laughter and tears But one thing I pray to heaven above May each of your days be a day full of love
May each day in the year be a good day May each dawn find you happy and gay And may all of your days be as lovely As the one you shared with me today
May each day of your life be a good day And good night.
10 Tea for Two Cha Cha Cha
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1924
Arranged by: Neil Richardson
Page Number: 89
Book Number: 1
Time Signature: 4/4
"Tea for Two" is a 1924 song composed by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Irving Caesar.[4][5] It was introduced in May 1924 by Phyllis Cleveland and John Barker during the Chicago pre-Broadway run of the musical No, No, Nanette.[6][4] When the show finally hit Broadway on September 16, 1925, Nanette was played by Louise Groody, and her duet with Barker of "Tea for Two" was a hit. The song went on to become the biggest success of Youmans' career.[7]
Background
Youmans had written the basic melody idea of "Tea for Two" while he was in the navy during World War I, and he used it later on as an introductory passage for a song called "Who's Who with You?" While in Chicago, Youmans developed the idea into "a song that the hero could sing to the heroine" for the musical No, No, Nanette. He soon after played his composition for Irving Caesar and insisted he write the lyrics then and there. Caesar quickly jotted down a mock-up lyric, fully intending to revise it later on. Youmans, though, loved the mock-up and convinced Caesar it was just right for the melody.[8][4]
It has been proposed, with little supporting evidence, that the phrase 'Tea for Two' was originally shouted by hawkers on the streets of 18th century England who wanted to attract business by lowering the price of a pot of tea from thruppence to tuppence. While this may be the case, 'tea for two' would have been a commonplace order for a couple in 19th-century English cafeterias.[9][10]
Musical characteristics
"Tea for Two" has an A1-A2-A3-B form, a range of just over an octave, and a major tonality throughout.[11][12] The song's original key was A♭ major with a pivot modulation to C major during the second "A" section.[11] It is rhythmically repetitive (as the entire song consists of eighth and quarter notes, except for a pattern of eighth, quarter, and eighth notes which briefly emerge in the second section) and has a relatively simple harmonic progression, as well as a simple yet charming melody.[11][12]
Charting recordings
January 1925: The Benson Orchestra of Chicago's instrumental rendition reaches number five on the US Billboard chart and stays there for five weeks.[13][9]
January 1925: Marion Harris's rendition reaches number one on the US Billboard chart and stays there for 11 weeks.[13][9]
1939: Art Tatum's rendition, for which he posthumously received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, hits number eighteen on the US Billboard chart and stays there for a week.[13][9]
September 1958: Tommy Dorsey's rendition reaches number seven on the US Billboard chart and stays there for twenty weeks and number five on the weekly top 50 charts from the Toronto radio station 'CHUM' and stays there for thirteen weeks.[13][9]
October 1958: Tommy Dorsey's rendition reaches number three on the UK Singles chart and stays there nineteen weeks.[13][9]
Adaptations and notable covers
In 1926, Boris Fomin arranged it for inclusion in his operetta "The Career of Pierpont Blake" (Карьера Пирпойнта Блэка), with Russian lyrics by Konstantin Podrevsky, under the title "Tahiti Trot".[14]
In 1927, Dmitri Shostakovich arranged "Tea for Two", known in the Soviet Union as Tahiti Trot, from memory after conductor Nicolai Malko bet him he could not do it in under an hour. He completed the orchestration in 45 minutes.
The following artists covered the song: Benny Goodman (1937), Fats Waller (c. 1938–1939), Gene Krupa with Anita O'Day (c. 1942), Art Tatum, Stan Kenton with O'Day (1944–1945), Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore (1947), Doris Day (1955), Duke Ellington, appearing on a 1999 expanded version of Ellington at Newport (1956), Bud Powell, The Genius of Bud Powell (1956), Teddy Wilson (1956), Anita O'Day, Anita O'Day at Mister Kelly's (1959).
In popular culture
In the 1975 documentary, Grey Gardens, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, or Big Edie, notoriously sings a slightly broken version the song for the Maysles brothers, as it was one of her favorite songs during her youth.
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck soft-shoe to “Tea for Two” in the Looney Tunes short Show Biz Bugs.
The song features prominently in the novel La invención de Morel (1940) by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares.
In the French–British WWII-set comedy film La Grande Vadrouille (1966) the humming of the "Tea for Two" melody is the secret code for the British bomber crew members to recognise each other in the Turkish baths at the Grand Mosque of Paris.
Occasionally on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, if a joke bombed during his monolog, the band would play "Tea for Two" and Carson would do a short soft shoe dance, which always got a laugh from the studio audience.
The pianist Yuja Wang will play "Tea For Two" as an encore, after, for example, playing all four Rachmaninov piano concertos at a concert.
The song is featured on The Offspring's 1997 album Ixnay on the Hombre, in the form of the track "Intermission."
11 Birdland
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1977
Written by: Joe Zawinul
Arranged by: Michael Sweeney
Page Number: 31
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 152
Time Signature: 4/4
Is a jazz/pop song written by Joe Zawinul of the band Weather Report as a tribute to the Birdland nightclub in New York City, which appeared on the band's 1977 album Heavy Weather. The Manhattan Transfer won a Grammy Award with their 1979 version of the song, which had lyrics by Jon Hendricks.[1]Quincy Jones won two Grammy Awards for the version of the piece he included on his 1989 album Back on the Block.[2] The leading Cuban band Los Van Van included an extended interpolation of the piece in their song Tim Pop/Birdland.
"Birdland" opens Heavy Weather, the 1977 album that marked the commercial peak of Weather Report's career. The composition is a tribute to the famous New York City jazz club named Birdland that operated on Broadway from 1949 through 1965 and hosted many great jazz musicians of the era. This was where Zawinul, who visited the club almost daily, heard performances by Count Basie,[3] Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis. It was also where he met his wife, Maxine.[4] Looking back, Zawinul claimed, "The old Birdland was the most important place in my life."[5] The song was also named in honor of Charlie Parker. According to Jaco Pastorius in a 1978 interview, the studio version of the song released on Heavy Weather was recorded in just one take.[6]The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings comments that “Birdland” typifies the formula that made the band successful, and “is one of only a handful of contemporary jazz tunes that everyone seems to have heard.”[7]
12 Slow Hot Wind (Lujon)
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example. Listen to how softly, yet intensely, this is played.
Year: 1965
Written by: Henry Mancini
Arranged by: Joe Reisman
Page Number: 86
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 87
Key Signature: F
Time Signature: 4/4
Appeared on his 1961 album Mr. Lucky Goes Latin, but was an original piece of music that had nothing to do with the Mr. Lucky television program.[2] It was included in the soundtracks for the films The Big Lebowski, Sexy Beast, W.E., and Two Lovers. Mancini would later record a jazz/swing version of "Slow Hot Wind" and include it on his 1975 album Symphonic Soul. The song would eventually reach the #38 spot on the Adult Contemporary list in 1976.[3]
13 In The Mood
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1939
Written by: Joe Garland
Arranged by: Joe Garland
Page Number: 1
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 162
Key Signature: Ab
Time Signature: 4/4
"In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by Edgar Hayes & His Orchestra in 1938. In 1983, the Glenn Miller recording from 1939 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, the recording was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry which consists of recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included the 1939 Glenn Miller recording in its list of "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".[2][3] Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", with "I Want to Be Happy" on the B-side, became the best-selling swing instrumental.[4][5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mood
14 Little Brown Jug
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1869
Written by: Joseph Eastburn Winner
Arranged by: Bill Finegan
Page Number: 3
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 115
Time Signature: 4/4
The story is told that this was one of Glenn Miller’s wife’s favorite tunes. He hated it. He repeatedly refused to arrange it for his band. But one year as an anniversary present for her he created this arrangement. The arrangement showcased Miller’s distinctive sound and played a significant role in establishing his band as one of the leading orchestras of the swing era.
In 1939, Glenn Miller and His Orchestrareleased a hit version of the song on RCA Bluebird, as an A side 78 single, B-10286-A, in a new arrangement by Bill Finegan backed with "Pavanne". The recording was an early chart hit for Glenn Miller. The song was performed in Glenn Miller's Carnegie Hall concert that year and became a staple of the Glenn Miller Orchestra repertoire, and a classic of the Big Band era.
15 Eager Beaver
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example. First part may be slightly clipped
Year: 1944
Written by: Stan Kenton
Arranged by: Will Hudson
Page Number: 52
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 145
Key Signature: Ab
Time Signature: 4/4
“Eager Beaver”
Composed and arranged by Stan Kenton.
Recorded on November 19, 1943 for Capitol in Hollywood, California.
Stanley N. Kenton, piano, leading: Marion “Buddy” Childers, Karl George, Ray Borden, John Carroll, Dick Morse, trumpets; Harry Forbes, George Faye, tenor trombones; Bart Varsalona, bass trombone; Eddie Meyers, Art Pepper, alto saxophones; Red Dorris, Maurice Beeson, tenor saxophones; Bob Gioga, baritone saxophone; Bob Ahern, guitar; Clyde Singleton, bass; Joe Vernon, drums.
The Story: Stanley Newcombe Kenton (1911-1979) was always an imposing presence, both personally and musically. The young saxophonist Art Pepper, who later had a major career as a jazz soloist, began his musical career in Kenton’s band. Here is how he recalled Kenton: “Stan Kenton was incredible. He reminded me a lot of my dad. Germanic, with the blonde straight hair. He was taller than my dad was; I think Stan was about six feet three, and slender. Clothes hung on him beautifully. He had long fingers, a long hawk-like nose, and a very penetrating gaze. He seemed to look through you. It was hard to look him in the eye, and most people would look away and become uncomfortable in his presence. And just like my dad, he had presence. When he spoke, people listened. He was a beautiful speaker, and had the capacity to communicate with an audience, and adapt to any group of people.” (Art Pepper, “Straight Life” (19), Schirmer Books.)
The music of all of his bands from the early 1940s until the late 1970s was distinctively different from the music of other bands, something Kenton worked very hard to achieve. First of all, it was loud. Kenton used five trumpets from practically the very beginning. Kenton also greatly expanded the role of the trombone section in the swing idiom. And he used a rhythmic approach, centering around the use of staccato phrasing, that was different from the flowing, relaxed rhythms of most of the best swing bands. This made it somewhat difficult to dance to the music of the Kenton band. Also, Stan could be rather melodramatic when leading his earliest bands, leaping about and waving his long arms, in an effort to whip up enthusiasm.
The Kenton band debuted on June 6, 1941 at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, a venue that had been and would continue to be important to Kenton for many years. Most of the arrangements played by the earliest Kenton band had been written by Stan himself. Among those arrangements was “Eager Beaver,” which is presented here. It provides a glimpse of what Kenton was trying to achieve musically in his band’s earliest years. He gave an interview in a magazine called Band Leaders, shortly after the time of the first Rendezvous engagement in which he explained what he was doing: “The band was originally designed, through both orchestration and presentation, to thrill as much as possible. I strove for flash and wanted every arrangement, whether slow or fast tempo, to be a production in itself. Everything was written to swing to a driving beat. Spirit and enthusiasm had to predominate at all times. I wanted to play the strongest swing possible, and yet to present swing in as elevated a manner as I could. I figured that 11:30 to midnight gave us our high period. Our climax was so complete at that time of night, that had you touched any kid in the audience, I think he would have thrown off sparks.”
Clearly, the elements were in place from the very beginning of the Kenton band to make audiences take notice. As one might expect, Kenton and his music became somewhat controversial, because it was so different from swing era norms, and Stan himself became somewhat controversial because of his messianic approach to presenting his music to audiences. (The entire story of Stan Kenton and his music is a very interesting one, and it is well-told in the book The Kenton Kronicles, by Steven D. Harris (2000), Dynaflow Publications. I must also mention that some of the information and photos in this post came from the excellent four-CD set called The Stan Kenton Story, issued in 2000 by Proper Records, in England. That set contains extensive notes by Kenton expert Joop Visser, a discography, and many of Kenton’s early recordings.)
Stan Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, moved as an infant with his parents Floyd and Stella (Newcombe) Kenton to Colorado where they lived for six years, and then finally relocated to Los Angeles in 1917. Stanley’s mother played piano, and occasionally gave lessons to children. His interest in music appeared early, and his mother sent him to a more accomplished musician than she for lessons. This was Frank Hurst, an organist in a Los Angeles theater. Hurst provided young Stanley with a solid musical foundation which included not only piano performance lessons, but an understanding of music theory, harmony and composition as well. Hurst was the perfect musical mentor for Kenton, and their teacher-pupil relationship lasted until Stanley was in his mid-teens. By then, he had been exposed to jazz recordings of early masters of the idiom, including Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines and Benny Carter. By the time Stanley was in his mid-teens, his overall interest in music had become somewhat obsessive.
Stanley played saxophone in his high school band for only the first two years he was there. He spent his second two years continuing his private study of music, and beginning to use the natural leadership skills he had. These emerged quite early. In 1928, as a junior in high school, he founded a popular music sextet called the Bell-Tones. (The Kenton family lived in the Bell section of Los Angeles, and Stan went to Bell High School.) That same year, he sold his first musical arrangement. He was class president in his senior year. He graduated from Bell High School in 1930.
He did many small-time musical jobs in Los Angeles from high school graduation (spring 1930) until September 1931, when he first joined Everett Hoagland’s territory band at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. It is unclear how long he stayed on this first employment with Hoagland, but he was back at the Rendezvous with the same band after a hiatus for the summer 1933 season. By that time, the Hoagland ensemble had become the house band there. Kenton’s association this time lasted almost a year. In the 1935 summer dance season at the Rendezvous, the band there was led by clarinetist Russ Plummer. Kenton, along with many other Hoagland holdovers, joined the Plummer band. Among the other sidemen in this band were tenor saxophonist Vido Musso, and drummer Spike Jones.Stan and Violet, 1940, at Idlewild.In March of 1936, Kenton joined the established and nationally-known Gus Arnheim band. Much of the time he was with Arnheim was spent in New York City, where he made some recordings with Arnheim. He remained with Arnheim until the fall of 1937, when he returned to Los Angeles. There he resumed studying piano technique and musical theory, this time with Charles Dalmores. He worked a variety of musical jobs in Los Angeles in 1938, but by 1939 was steadily employed in various musical capacities at the Earl Carroll Theater in Hollywood, working on various productions staged there. This lasted until August of 1940, when he began assembling a rehearsal band that would eventually become his first band. Then Stanley, and his wife Violet, whom he married in 1935, retreated to a cabin resort called Idlewild in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, where he began composing and arranging music for what he hoped would be his own working, full-time band. “Eager Beaver” was created there.
The music:“Eager Beaver” is one of Kenton’s earliest compositions. It provides a good early glimpse of what Kenton was up to musically in the early 1940s. After a four-bar introduction where bold brass and reeds are heard, Kenton steps out presenting the exposition of the simple, catchy melody of “Eager Beaver” on piano. Despite much study and experience, Kenton was never a virtuoso pianist. But he was a competent band pianist who could play an acceptable jazz chorus when that was required. Here he repeats the first two eight-bar segments of the main theme, and follows with the bridge, then the reeds and brass finish the first chorus. Note the use of “oo-wah” in the brass. This effect is created by the trumpet/trombone players either cupping their hands or using a small toilet plunger in front of the bell of their instruments, and “fanning,” with the “oo” effect being created when the cupping is near the bell, and the “wah” effect coming when the cupping is flexed away from the bell.The tenor saxophone solo that comes next is played by Red Dorris (pictured at right),whose robust, big sound clearly was modeled on those of Coleman Hawkins, the “father” of the tenor saxophone (at least in the jazz world), and Vido Musso, one of Hawkins’s earliest and most forceful stylistic adherents, who was one of the best (though not well-remembered) early tenor saxophone swingers. Dorris undoubtedly heard Hawkins’s playing on records, while he most certainly heard Musso, a Los Angeles musician, in-person, and also probably on the records he made in 1936 and 1937 with Benny Goodman’s highly popular band. Despite a couple of minor intonation glitches, Dorris creates a very effective 16-bar jazz solo.
Following Dorris, the Kenton band itself shines, with excellent ensemble playing, effective use of dynamics, and a building, explosive finale.
This recording was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Credits: https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/04/25/eager-beaver-1943-stan-kenton/
16 Sunny (Sanny)
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1968
Written by: Bobby Hebb
Arranged by: Bobby Hebb
Page Number: New
Book Number: Red Folder
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 100
Key Signature: G
Time Signature: 4/4
"Sunny" is a soul jazz standard written by the American singer and songwriter Bobby Hebb in 1963. It is one of the most performed and recorded popular songs, with hundreds of versions released and its chord progression influencing later songs. BMI rates "Sunny" No. 25 in its "Top 100 songs of the century".[2]
Background and composition
Bobby Hebb, 1966
Hebb's parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were both blind musicians. Hebb and his older brother Harold performed as a song-and-dance duo in Nashville, beginning when Bobby was three and Harold was nine. Hebb performed on a TV show hosted by country music record producer Owen Bradley.
Hebb wrote the song after his older brother, Harold, was stabbed to death outside a Nashville nightclub.[3] Hebb was devastated by the event and many critics say it inspired the lyrics and tune. According to Hebb, he merely wrote the song as an expression of a preference for a "sunny" disposition over a "lousy" disposition following the murder of his brother.[4]
Events influenced Hebb's songwriting, but his melody, crossing over into R&B (#3 on U.S. R&B chart) and Pop (#2 on U.S. Pop chart), together with the optimistic lyrics, came from the artist's desire to express that one should always "look at the bright side". Hebb has said about "Sunny":
All my intentions were to think of happier times and pay tribute to my brother – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low. After I wrote it, I thought "Sunny" just might be a different approach to what Johnny Bragg was talking about in "Just Walkin' in the Rain".
Chord progression's legacy
Its sixteen-barform starts with two repeats of a four-bar phrase starting on the song's E minortonic i chord followed by a V7–I to C major and a ii–V7 in the last bar to return to the first i chord:
The fourth and final four-bar phrase is a ii–V7–i that settles on the song's tonic:
𝄀 F♯m7 𝄀 B7 𝄀 Em 𝄀 𝄎 𝄂
Elements of this "Sunny" chord progression are found in some later jazz and pop songs, notably:[5]
Red Clay (title track of Freddie Hubbard's 1970 album Red Clay) loops the "Sunny" progression's first four bars for soloing (but modifies the first V7–I into a full ii–V7–I and modifies the ii–V7 in the last bar into a iiø–V7)
The tune was included on the film's soundtrack album (originally issued as RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2795) and available as a single (in the United States) in 1964; the single reached the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard adult contemporary chart and won three Grammy Awards.
Various recordings of the composition appeared in the opening credits of all The Pink Panther films except A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. It has also been used in theatrical shorts, television cartoons, commercials and other works in which the animated Pink Panther appears.
"The Pink Panther Theme", composed in the key of E minor, is unusual for Mancini's extensive use of chromaticism.
In his autobiography Did They Mention the Music?, Mancini talked about how he composed the theme music:
I told [the animators] that I would give them a tempo they could animate to, so that any time there were striking motions, someone getting hit, I could score to it.
[The animators] finished the sequence and I looked at it. All the accents in the music were timed to actions on the screen.
I had a specific saxophone player in mind—Plas Johnson. I nearly always precast my players and write for them and around them, and Plas had the sound and the style I wanted.[1]
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1930
Written by: Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields
Arranged by: Mark Taylor
Page Number: New
Book Number: Red Folder
Key Signature: Ab
Time Signature: 4/4
"On the Sunny Side of the Street" is a 1930 song composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Some authors say that Fats Waller was the composer, but he sold the rights to the song.[1] It was introduced in the Broadway musical Lew Leslie's International Revue starring Harry Richman and Gertrude Lawrence.
Ted Lewis did the first recording of the song in 1930 (Catalog #2144-D), followed by Harry Richman (Catalog # 4747) and both enjoyed hit records with the song.
The song was featured in the 1991 film JFK,[6] the 1995 film Father of the Bride Part II, in an episode of the sitcom Frasier[7] and in the fourth episode of the fourth season of Northern Exposure,[8] in 1992.[9] It was also used in the fourteenth episode of the third season of Cheers,[10] in 1985,[11] where several characters each sing part of the song one after the other, as if by contagion, after walking past each other.
20 Summer Samba - So Nice (Samba De Verao)
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1964
Written by: Marcos Valle, Paulo Sergio Valle & Norman Gimbel
Audio Example: NOTE: This is an example only! You CAN NOT play along with this.New audio is coming...
Year: 2024
Written by: Charles Fox & Robert Griffin
Arranged by: Robert Griffin
Page Number: New
Book Number: Red Folder
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 124
Key Signature: Eb
Time Signature: 4/4
Arranged by our very own Robert Griffin
This arrangement is the first original chart by Robert Griffin that the Red Devils have played. It is based on the "Monday Night Football" theme or officially titled work "Score" by Charles Fox (circa 1970).
‘Score’
“Monday Night Football” began airing on ABC in 1970 and kicked off with an opening theme of “Score” composed by Charles Fox. The groovy, funky pop number was produced by Bob’s Band, headed by Bob Israel, who also created theme songs for other ABC shows such as “20/20” and “Nightline.”
“Score” remained the show’s intro song until 1975.
Composed in 1970 by Johnny Pearson, the tune that eventually became one of the most famous show intros in television history was first heard on “Monday Night Football” in the 1976 season-opening broadcast. The song was mainly used as background music for its first decade-plus of MNF airing and became a more integral part of the show’s opening in 1989, when it was modernized by Edd Kalehoff.
22 Contessa
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Written by: Lennie Niehaus
Arranged by: Lennie Niehaus
Page Number: 69
Book Number: 1
23 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Audio Example: NOTE: You CAN play along with this example.
Year: 1966
Written by: Josef Zawanul
Arranged by: Buddy Rich
Page Number: 54
Book Number: 1
Beats Per Minute: ♩ = 140
Time Signature: 4/4
"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is a jazz song written by Joe Zawinul (lyrics by Gail Fisher) in 1966 for Cannonball Adderley and which appears on his album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at "The Club". The song is the title track of the album and became a surprise hit in February 1967.[1] "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" went to #2 on the Soul chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[2] Original version The original version was performed by: Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone), Nat Adderley (cornet), Joe Zawinul (piano, electric piano), Victor Gaskin (bass) and Roy McCurdy (drums). The theme of the song is performed by Zawinul on a Wurlitzer electric piano previously used by Ray Charles.[3] Musical analysis The first part of the theme is played twice and is completely made of notes from the major pentatonic scale of the first degree. The tune is in the key of B-flat major and has a 20-bar structure with four distinct sections. The chord progression is mainly made of dominant-seventh chords on the first, fourth and fifth degrees, giving the song a bluesy feeling although it does not follow a typical blues progression. The subdominant (IV) chord in the beginning section emphasizes this bluesy feeling. In the second section, the tonic chord alternates with a second-inversion subdominant chord, creating a parallel to the I-IV-V progression (in which the tonic moves to the subdominant).
BAND MEMBERS: bring your own stand and arrive in time for downbeat at 6:30 PM. Setup will begin as early as 6:00 PM.
The Story: Stanley Newcombe Kenton (1911-1979) was always an imposing presence, both personally and musically. The young saxophonist Art Pepper, who later had a major career as a jazz soloist, began his musical career in Kenton’s band. Here is how he recalled Kenton: “Stan Kenton was incredible. He reminded me a lot of my dad. Germanic, with the blonde straight hair. He was taller than my dad was; I think Stan was about six feet three, and slender. Clothes hung on him beautifully. He had long fingers, a long hawk-like nose, and a very penetrating gaze. He seemed to look through you. It was hard to look him in the eye, and most people would look away and become uncomfortable in his presence. And just like my dad, he had presence. When he spoke, people listened. He was a beautiful speaker, and had the capacity to communicate with an audience, and adapt to any group of people.” (Art Pepper, “Straight Life” (19), Schirmer Books.)
The music of all of his bands from the early 1940s until the late 1970s was distinctively different from the music of other bands, something Kenton worked very hard to achieve. First of all, it was loud. Kenton used five trumpets from practically the very beginning. Kenton also greatly expanded the role of the trombone section in the swing idiom. And he used a rhythmic approach, centering
around the use of staccato phrasing, that was different from the flowing, relaxed rhythms of most of the best swing bands. This made it somewhat difficult to dance to the music of the Kenton band. Also, Stan could be rather melodramatic when leading his earliest bands, leaping about and waving his long arms, in an effort to whip up enthusiasm.
The Kenton band debuted on June 6, 1941 at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, a venue that had been and would continue to be important to Kenton for many years. Most of the arrangements played by the earliest Kenton band had been written by Stan himself. Among those arrangements was “Eager Beaver,” which is presented here. It provides a glimpse of what Kenton was trying to achieve musically in his band’s earliest years. He gave an interview in a magazine called Band Leaders, shortly after the time of the first Rendezvous engagement in which he explained what he was doing: “The band was originally designed, through both orchestration and presentation, to thrill as much as possible. I strove for flash and wanted every arrangement, whether slow or fast tempo, to be a production in itself. Everything was written to swing 
to a driving beat. Spirit and enthusiasm had to predominate at all times. I wanted to play the strongest swing possible, and yet to present swing in as elevated a manner as I could. I figured that 11:30 to midnight gave us our high period. Our climax was so complete at that time of night, that had you touched any kid in the audience, I think he would have thrown off sparks.”
Clearly, the elements were in place from the very beginning of the Kenton band to make audiences take notice. As one might expect, Kenton and his music became somewhat controversial, because it was so different from swing era norms, and Stan himself became somewhat controversial because of his messianic approach to presenting his music to audiences. (The entire story of Stan Kenton and his music is a very interesting one, and it is well-told in the book The Kenton Kronicles, by Steven D. Harris (2000), Dynaflow Publications. I must also mention that some of the information and photos in this post came from the excellent four-CD set called The Stan Kenton Story, issued in 2000 by Proper Records, in England. That set contains extensive notes by Kenton expert Joop Visser, a discography, and many of Kenton’s early recordings.)
Stan Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, moved as an infant with his parents Floyd and Stella (Newcombe) Kenton to Colorado where they lived for six years, and then finally relocated to Los Angeles in 1917. Stanley’s mother played piano, and occasionally gave lessons to children. His interest in music appeared early, and his mother sent him to a more accomplished musician than she for lessons. This was Frank Hurst, an organist in a Los Angeles theater. Hurst provided young Stanley with a solid musical foundation which included not only piano performance lessons, but an understanding of music theory, harmony and composition as well. Hurst was the perfect musical mentor for Kenton, and their teacher-pupil relationship lasted until Stanley was in his mid-teens. By then, he had been exposed to jazz recordings of early masters of the idiom, including Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines and Benny Carter. By the time Stanley was in his mid-teens, his overall interest in music had become somewhat obsessive.
Stanley played saxophone in his high school band for only the first two years he was there. He spent his second two
years continuing his private study of music, and beginning to use the natural leadership skills he had. These emerged quite early. In 1928, as a junior in high school, he founded a popular music sextet called the Bell-Tones. (The Kenton family lived in the Bell section of Los Angeles, and Stan went to Bell High School.) That same year, he sold his first musical arrangement. He was class president in his senior year. He graduated from Bell High School in 1930.
He did many small-time musical jobs in Los Angeles from high school graduation (spring 1930) until September 1931, when he first joined Everett Hoagland’s territory band at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. It is unclear how long he stayed on this first employment with Hoagland, but he was back at the Rendezvous with the same band after a hiatus for the summer 1933 season. By that time, the Hoagland ensemble had become the house band there. Kenton’s association this time lasted almost a year. In the 1935 summer dance season at the Rendezvous, the band there was led by clarinetist Russ Plummer. Kenton, along with many other Hoagland holdovers, joined the Plummer band. Among the other sidemen in this band were tenor saxophonist Vido Musso, and drummer Spike Jones.
who could play an acceptable jazz chorus when that was required. Here he repeats the first two eight-bar segments of the main theme, and follows with the bridge, then the reeds and brass finish the first chorus. Note the use of “oo-wah” in the brass. This effect is created by the trumpet/trombone players either cupping their hands or using a small toilet plunger in front of the bell of their instruments, and “fanning,” with the “oo” effect being created when the cupping is near the bell, and the “wah” effect coming when the cupping is flexed away from the bell.
The tenor saxophone solo that comes next is played by Red Dorris (pictured at right), whose robust, big sound clearly was modeled on those of Coleman Hawkins, the “father” of the tenor saxophone (at least in the jazz world), and Vido Musso, one of Hawkins’s earliest and most forceful stylistic adherents, who was one of the best (though not well-remembered) early tenor saxophone swingers. Dorris undoubtedly heard Hawkins’s playing on records, while he most certainly heard Musso, a Los Angeles musician, in-person, and also probably on the records he made in 1936 and 1937 with Benny Goodman’s highly popular band. Despite a couple of minor intonation glitches, Dorris creates a very effective 16-bar jazz solo.
Following Dorris, the Kenton band itself shines, with excellent ensemble playing, effective use of dynamics, and a building, explosive finale.
This recording was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Credits: https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/04/25/eager-beaver-1943-stan-kenton/
