Rehearsal Files for Band Members

This page gives you access to assorted music files that may be useful if you're in one of the bands we play with. In general, these are recordings from rehearsals of various bands or rhythm section (piano, bass, drums) backgrounds produced from the appropriate chords by Band in a Box (BIAB). The files in General MIDI format are quite small and should work well with any decent sounds card (and especially well if your card generates decent instrument sounds). In some cases, there are also files in WAV format, which will sound great on any sound card but are humongous (megabytes in size). You can listen to any file by clicking on its link, or download it to your computer by right-clicking on a link and choosing Save Target As. Many recorded files are in standard MP3 format.

SWJ Rehearsal Recordings - Big Band

Various recordings that may be useful for our current work list. Be aware that tempos (tempi?) may vary and "goodness" is variable.

There are several flavors of recordings:

• SWJ - big band recordings played by SWJ
• Finale - same arrangement with MIDI-generated playback
• Original - same arrangement by original artist (may be a YouTube link). In some cases I've shown another band playing the same or similar arrangement.

SWJ - Christmas Time is HereA Chili Pepper Christmas - 4 Horns

Our newest "album" from Hollywood Senior Center - December 3, 2017

SWJ Rehearsal Recordings - Combo

Here's the play-along version of some of the 4 horn charts that the SWJ small group has been using. In places where we've rewritten some of the solos I've posted (1) the original chart; (2) the chart with the solo substitute in; (3) a fragment with just the solo, suitable for practicing.

SWJ 2017 June 19 Rehearsal

SWJ 2017 June 12 Rehearsal

Most links include multiple takes (partial or full)

SWJ 24 Jun 2013 Rehearsal

Recording of Madrid

SWJ 30 Jan 2012 Rehearsal

Here are the charts we recorded at tonight's rehearsal. haven't listened to them yet, so we all have virgin ears! Makes notes on things you think we should fix next week -- which should be useful. If you want want to save any to your PC, see paragraph at top of page for help. (BTW, dunno what happened to the recording of Hoss Flat; must have failed to hit record properly because I can't find it. Drat.)

TiRC - New Charts

Here are play-along / sing-along versions of the newest TiRC charts in case you want to rehearse your stuff. Doug, these are in the correct key for your voice as handed out (i.e., they are not necessarily in the key of the original recordings).

Final Analysis

Four Brothers

OK SWJE saxes, here's your chance to get your fingers straight on Four Brothers! This comes from the Woody Herman "Thundering Herd" and is the same arrangement we're playing (but with different solos). I've posted both the original tempo and one that's slowed down by about 10%, probably close to where we're likely to play it. Once you get it under your fingers, I recommend trying to play with the original -- if you get that down, the rest is a cakewalk! See above for how to save to your system if you desire.

Sax in the City

Rehearsal - July 23, 2009

Here are the charts we recorded this evening. They're good for playing along with, but I also recommend just LISTENING to them so you get your own sense of what's not matching up, where we're out of balance, what's out of tune, etc. Likely to be very instructive!!!

For your amusement, I've also included a playback of the Finale version of Get It On (the exact arrangement we're playing), as well as the original chart by Chase (which by the way, you should run out and buy IMMEDIATELY as a great album by a great trumpet player!).

Here are the "originals" of Get It On:

Rehearsal - July 30, 2009

Rehearsal - August 4, 2009

Dear Old Stockholm

Since we're working on this chart: Here's a recording of Dear Old Stockholm that matches the arrangement we have, played by Rob Parton's Jazztech Big Band. (Turns out I also have a version from John Coltrane & Miles Davis, but that's not posted!)

Treble in River City

Rehearsal - February 23, 2007

Recordings from rehearsal. Note that this was first night we'd played Crazy, Pick Up, and Chameleon, and only second night for Sesame.

Portland Community Wind Band

Fiesta

For Cynthia: Here's a recording of the Miami Killian band playing Clifton Williams's Symphonic Dance No. 3 ("Fiesta"). Click the link to listen, or right-click the link and select "Save Target As ..." to download to your system. Note: File is 9.07 MBytes.

1812 Overture

For Cynthia: Here's a recording of the 1812 Overture (New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting). Click the link to listen, or right-click the link and select "Save Target As ..." to download to your system. Note: File is 21.8 MBytes.

Second Wind Gigs

Gladstone Somerset - Aug 2, 2006

Second Wind Rehearsals

January 16, 2006

• Don't Get Around Much (Van Vocal)
• Moten Swing 1 (Steve solo)
• Moten Swing 2 (Van solo)
• When Sunny Gets Blue (Van vocal)
• When Sunny Gets Blue (vocal omitted, band only)

Solo Breaks and Other Practice

Doxy

Second Wind: Here's some listening practice! This is Doxy as recorded by the Rob Parton JAZZTECH Big Band. Suggest you take a listen for style -- maybe even mark up your part! They do it at a faster tempo than us, but it's oh so smooth. Click here to listen.

Pink Panther (June 29, 2003)

Second Wind: Here's the solo section of Pink Panther in MIDI format. Eight count lead-in, three choruses.

Computer (June 23, 2003)

Second Wind: Here's a recording of Computer to practice with. This is in Windows Media (WMA) format. Save it as noted above, then play it in your Windows Media Player.

If you want to just work on the "teletype" part of the song (measure 85 etc), here are some MIDI files you can work with. You get four bars of count-in, then the section repeats four times. One file has all the parts; each of the others has only one of the parts plus drum clicks so that you can work out the rhythms on your part.

Update, June 29: Updated the Alto Saxes and All Parts files to correct a missing sixteenth rest in bar 5 (thanks, Chris!).

• All Parts
• Alto Saxes, Trumpet 4, Trombone 1
• Tenor Saxes, Trombone 2
• Trumpets 1, 2, 3
• Bari Sax

Crazy Little Thing Called Love (March 9, 2003)

Power Pep Band: Wanna work on that solo break in Crazy Little Thing Called Love? Well, here ya go. This selection starts two bars before the first solo break (on the "crazy little thing called love" lick) and then give you 8 full solo choruses to work with. This one's in General MIDI format.

Another Excuse to Play the Blues (August 2002)

Second Wind: Here's a practice version of Another Excuse you can use to rehearse solo licks.  It consists of a four bar "intro" (bars 47-50), then three full solo choruses. It finishes with a dopey two-bar "finish" that BIAB added and I didn't bother to delete. This is a MIDI version (about 8 Kbytes).

Watermelon Man (April 2002)

Second Wind: Here's a practice version of Watermelon Man for you to rehearse with. This selection consists of a full chorus, 3 solo choruses (complete with "break"), then one chorus to finish. It's available in both MIDI and MP3 format. The MIDI format is small (about 22 Kbytes). If you try it and don't like what you hear, you can download the MP3 format, which will sound great on any sound card but is 31 MBytes in size (so download will be slow).

Possible TBGO Charts

NOTE: On some charts you may get a Hal Leonard "Do you agree?" page. If you do, click yes. Then look for the audio button on the next page that appears (right below the picture of the chart) and click that.

Chart	Click to listen	Comments
What'd I Say?		Ray Charles - Maybe we could add singing back & forth with crowd?
Born to Be Wild		Steppenwolf -- this cooks and it's an easy chart. Good bones!
Strut		Sheena Easton tune. I hadn't heard it before, but it sounded like a funky tune you might like.
Radar Love		Janet's been wanting this for a long time
Birdland		Not sure whether or not this is your kind of chart, but it's pretty exciting and would be different for GAL.
Gimme Some Lovin'		More Blues Brothers. I've disliked other arrangements, this sounds pretty good.
Let It Whip		The bass line alone is worth it!
Midnight Special		This is short, but feels like a GAL kinda chart.
Jesus Is Just Alright With Me		Doobie Brothers! I wouldn't have believed this would make a great chart -- but I really like it!
Takin' It to the Streets		More Doobies.
Rubberband Man		The Spinners -- kinda funky.
National Anthem March		July 4, Vets Day, etc.