Duke's 'Bones: Trombone Book

This book treats the trombone section as a compositional voice rather than a rhythm section footnote. By centering five decades of Ellington's trombonists through transcriptions and historical context, students see how individual voice and stylistic evolution shaped one of jazz's greatest orchestras.

Intimate and authoritative. The photos and biographical sketches make these musicians real people solving real musical problems across changing decades. The transcriptions range from breathy, mute-heavy ensemble work to soaring solo statements, revealing the full emotional and technical spectrum the trombone commands.

Serious trombone students and jazz educators who want their players to understand that great jazz soloing grows from specific compositional contexts and bandleader vision, not just individual technique. This works especially well for advanced high school jazz ensembles or college jazz studies programs exploring jazz history.

• Study the transcriptions chronologically to hear how the instrument's role shifted from the early ensemble textures (Nanton, Tizol) through the more orchestral writing for Brown and Glenn.
• Listen to the recordings alongside the solos. Ellington's arrangements were written for specific voices; hearing how each player approaches similar figures reveals the interpretive choices that define your own approach.
• Pay attention to the harmonic language each trombonist navigates. The shifts in sophistication across the band's history demand growing melodic and harmonic literacy.

Use this as the foundation for a unit on jazz arranging and orchestration, pairing transcription study with your ensemble's own repertoire work. For programs with jazz history components, the discography and timeline anchor discussions of Ellington's evolution across the 20th century.

• Reading idiomatic jazz articulation and phrasing from transcribed solos
• Understanding harmonic movement in sophisticated jazz contexts
• Analyzing how composers write for individual voices within ensemble structures
• Recognizing stylistic and technical development across historical periods
• Building listening literacy through close study of recorded references