Jazz Small Ensembles

Teachers keep coming back to Ryan Fraley's Charting the Course method books across multiple instrumentations. Beyond method instruction, Josh Weirich's Play Jazz: Trombone and Vince Gassi's Just for Two Easy Jazz arrangements are solid choices for students ready to play real jazz material at accessible levels.

Recent additions include Bill Mays' Play Song for four saxophones, Matthew Schoendorff's In Search of... The Wild Saxamuhphones, and Armen Donelian's Metropolitan Madness for woodwind quintet, all published in 2026. Jim McNeely's Three Conversations and Fred Sturm's Picasso Cubed offer substantive saxophone ensemble work for more advanced groups.

Ryan Fraley is the workhorse of this collection with 47 titles spanning multiple instruments and skill levels. His Charting the Course series has become a default choice for jazz educators introducing students to method-based learning, with the bass clef and B-flat books each selling over 50 copies in the past year.

Vince Gassi brings nearly two decades of publication history and a reputation built on energetic, musically rewarding arrangements that appear regularly on contest lists. His Alfred Music credentials and background from the University of Western Ontario inform works that engage young musicians without sacrificing artistic substance.

Josh Weirich's Play Jazz series, particularly his trombone method, has found strong adoption among teachers looking for guided solo instruction that goes beyond standard etude books. His approach to jazz pedagogy balances accessibility with real musicianship development.