Evan F. Coleman

Numero Cinco

The American composer Ervan F. "Bud" Coleman was also a guitarist and mandolin player with the popular band "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass" in the 1960s. He also composed other TJB songs, such as "Tijuana Taxi", "Miss Frenchy Brown", "The Wall Street Rag" and "Freckles".

“Numero Cinco” (“Number Five”) is arranged for flexible instrumentation, which makes it user-friendly, with both melody and rhythmic challenges to every instrument. The Piano part makes it possible to add melodic percussion, to put an extra "color" to the sound.

To achieve a good preparation and performance:

The arrangement alternates between a swing feel (Light Tijuana Swing) and a Latin-calypso style with even eight notes (Sections D and E).

It´s important to make a fresh start in the correct tempo, to achieve the catchy, light-hearted style without playing too fast. Make sure that everyone plays with a 2-feel / "half-time" swing from the beginning.

The melodic theme is introduced by bass/tuba (Part 5), followed by trombone/baritone or tenor saxophone (Part 4), and it grows from there. On rehearsal letter D it goes into the Latin-calypso section with even eight notes, but without changing the tempo!