Jazz Lines Publications Afro-Bossa (Bula) - Ellington - Jazz Ensemble - Gr. Difficult

Composer: Duke Ellington
Transcribed: Christopher Crenshaw
Format: Score and Parts
Instrumentation: Jazz Ensemble
Style: Swing Bolero
Level: Difficult

One of the most essential elements that made Ellington a great composer was his ability to keep growing over the course of half a century. Take a moment and listen to his first recordings from 1924 (Rainy Nights and Choo-Choo) and try to imagine what he might have thought then if he heard this piece, which was written and recorded almost forty years later. As jazz expanded and grew, Ellington took everything in stride, and found ways to incorporate new sounds into his own style. This piece comes from an album issued in 1963 as Afro-Bossa. Some of the music was adapted from earlier pieces, and some was brand new, like this one.

Afro-Bossa is a wonderfully strange and important piece of Ellingtonia because it is a great example of Ellington integrating the blues into his writing-as he did so often. The moods seamlessly shift between very abstract concepts and various styles of swinging blues.

Instrumentation:

• Full Score
• Woodwind 1: Alto Sax
• Woodwind 2: Alto Sax/Clarinet
• Woodwind 3: Tenor Sax/Clarinet
• Woodwind 4: Tenor Sax
• Woodwind 5: Bari Sax/Bass Clarinet
• Woodwind 5 (Alternate): Bari Sax
• 4 Trumpets
• 2 Trombones
• Bass Trombone
• Bass
• Drums

Ranges:

• Trumpet 1: G6
• Trumpet 2: Eb6
• Trombone 1: C5