Steve Schaughency

Jazztets 4: "It's the Holly Daze!"

In each of the Jazztets 4 Horns collections, I strive to present pieces in diverse styles, which can be categorised as jazz by today's somewhat vague definitions. Jazztets, Set #4, focuses on music for the Christmas holidays. We've all played this kind of music in our lifetimes, whether for fun or profit, or both. The pool of music that we hear over and over during the ever-lengthening holiday season is relatively small. Therefore, interest for many musicians performing this music year in and year out, comes with how these pieces are arranged or presented. Hopefully, what I've contributed here will be enjoyable for hornists to play, enjoyable to listen to and not too irreverent...folks can sometimes get pretty uncompromising when it comes to their holiday favourites.
In this set, I've arranged four pieces using a variety of modern jazz styles: jazz waltz, swing, mixed meter, modal, ballad, etc. When presenting the melodic material, I've tried to come up with a version without straying too far from the original by treating the traditional melodies with modern jazz harmonies, sometimes altered, and more complex rhythms. For whatever reason, every one of the four pieces in this collection have sections in 5/4 or 5/8. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened.
I sincerely hope you enjoy these arrangements and, most importantly, have fun and don't swing too hard!
- Steve Schaughency