Dixieland Beat: Conductor Book

This collection gives you eleven standards in one conductor book, eliminating the task of hunting down individual arrangements across different publishers. Meissner writes for real jazz ensemble instrumentation with piano accompaniment, so your rhythm section gets genuine swing figures instead of simplified fill. The selection spans recognizable tunes that audiences know and that students actively want to learn.

Genuine Dixieland and early jazz swing. You'll hear the blues foundation underneath tunes like Blizzard Head Blues and the syncopated streetcar energy of New Orleans Masquerade. The writing invites call-and-response moments and individual voices to emerge within the ensemble texture.

Jazz ensemble directors working with intermediate groups who want substantial repertoire without the burden of licensing multiple separate charts. This book also serves arranging students and musicians studying jazz history through performance.

• Shape the phrasing around the lyrical content even though your ensemble is instrumental. Knowing where the original melody's words naturally breathe helps sections avoid clipped endings and rushed accompaniment figures.
• Lock the swing feel first before worrying about tempo. A slightly slower tune with settled eighth-note jazz articulation will outswing a rushed chart at a faster metronome marking.
• Watch the piano accompaniment voicings in the conductor book. These inversions and chord substitutions provide harmonic information your horn players need to hear when they're comping or trading phrases.

Build a full jazz concert around this collection or pull individual standards as contrast pieces within a larger set. The variety allows you to pace a concert effectively, mixing the slower blues numbers with uptempo strutting pieces. Several titles work well as festival repertoire.

• Reading and executing swing articulation consistently across a full ensemble
• Trading solos over chord changes and maintaining harmonic awareness while improvising
• Balancing independent comping figures in the rhythm section with ensemble tutti passages
• Phrase shaping in jazz context using dynamics and space rather than vibrato
• Playing blues changes and recognizing similar harmonic patterns across multiple standards