First Year Charts Collection for Jazz Ensemble: 1st B-flat Trumpet Book

Swinging and energetic, yet entirely accessible. Standards, movie themes, and holiday tunes sit alongside original jazz compositions, so you're learning established jazz vocabulary while playing music you already love. The grooves are infectious and the voicings sit comfortably in your range.

First-year jazz ensemble players with fundamental musicianship skills who are ready to read chord changes and navigate jazz articulation and phrasing. This book works equally well in programs building from scratch and in ensembles adding a beginner trumpet section. You do not need a full complement of players to make this collection sound polished.

• Listen closely to how the rhythm section interprets the swing feel on each chart. Your articulation and phrasing shift dramatically between straight-eighth ballads and shuffle-based grooves; let the drums and bass guide your approach.
• The written solos on "El Gato Gordo" and "One O'Clock Jump" show you exactly how to shape a jazz solo with the melody and timing the arranger envisioned. Observe the rhythmic placement and note groupings before adding your own interpretive touches.
• On the rock-inflected charts like "Rock This Town," lock your entrance cues tightly with the other trumpet parts. These arrangements rely on unified brass punctuation to maintain energy, so coordinate with your section before full rehearsal.
• Use "Loosen Up" as a genuine warm-up: the chart functions as both technical preparation and performance piece, so approach it with the same focus you'd give any other arrangement.

Slot individual charts throughout your concert season as concert openers, closer, or intermission material. The variety means you can program "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for a fall concert, add "A Jazzy Merry Christmas" to a December event, and build toward a spring jazz showcase featuring the more demanding arrangements. Start with "Loosen Up" and "Over the Rainbow" early in the year to establish fundamentals.

• Reading and playing jazz articulation and phrasing conventions
• Responding to swing and straight-eighth feels and adjusting tone and articulation accordingly
• Reading chord symbols and understanding harmonic movement
• Improvising over written solo sections and changes
• Blending and balancing within a three-part trumpet section
• Responding to rhythm section cues and locking with drums and bass
• Playing with dynamic control across ballad, funk, and rock contexts