Ron Jones

Rain Trance

From Composer Ron Jones:
'Think Sade singing Smooth Operator in a warm romantic slow bossa and you get the idea behind Rain Trance. Marked at 108 BMP this piece is not strenuous but really demands feel, style and a together understanding of things. This features soprano sax and flugel horn but you can switch it around to trumpet and tenor also.
The piano has various solo spots but over all the rhythm section functions as laying down an easy, tasty and easy ­owing groove. It is basically for 7 players with an added second percussion. This is a good change of pace piece, one that draws in the audience to listen and become absorbed in the textures and easy grooviness sort of a trance. The open solo sections give plenty of room to showoff- the chops of the horn players as well as giving the rhythm section enough space to add their special touch and color.
The fl­ugel horn and soprano sax is a classic sound in jazz and I wrote all sorts of interaction in the duets that happen in Rain Trance. The intro has the rhythm laying the groove. The guitar part is indicated as pretty so sort of feature the color and sound of the guitar. The piano has written parts for both hands but also added chord symbols so does the bass so more advanced players can freely add embellished lls and alternate parts. The duet section establishes the theme and is followed by a section that opens for a fl­ugel horn solo then a soprano sax solo.
After that at bar 75 the horns are in duet and the piano does solo lls leading to a guitar solo section at bar 83. Not to be forgotten the drums and perc have an open solo section where they can stretch things out and show their rhythmic and expressive essence. Bar 101 takes us to a recap of the main theme with the fl­ugel laying down the melody and the soprano playing tasty written lls. Things develop until at bar 109 they are locked in as a duet. 134 till the end is sort of a vamp for solos and light interplay taking us to the last held chord.'