How About You?: Vocal Solo with Jazz Ensemble Conductor Score

Dave Wolpe's arrangement gives your ensemble a chance to back a soloist on genuinely swingin' material without overcomplicating the parts. The two-key option means you can cast this piece confidently, whether your vocalist is a soprano, alto, tenor, or baritone, and the 20-page score delivers everything from intimate ballad moments to full section hits. This is the kind of standard that lets your ensemble sound polished and professional while giving the vocalist room to really interpret.

Relaxed and sophisticated, like a late-night club performance. The melody settles into that sweet spot between casual conversational singing and full theatrical commitment, and Wolpe's arrangement lets you sink into the groove rather than rush through it.

Jazz ensemble programs at the high school or early college level looking for a standard that showcases a vocalist without requiring extraordinary technical chops. Directors who want a piece that's sophisticated enough for a concert but accessible enough that students can focus on ensemble blend and jazz interpretation rather than wrestling with complex harmony.

• Work the section entrances in isolation first. The rhythm section needs to lock before adding brass hits, so rehearse piano and bass as a unit, then bring in drums, then layer in the horns.
• Let the vocalist control the tempo in the rubato passages. Jazz standards live or die by the singer's phrasing, so establish a clear click in your mind but grant flexibility on the downbeats.
• Balance the vocal line above the ensemble texture, especially in the tutti sections. Have the brass play softer than they think they should; the soloist is carrying the melody, not fighting for it.
• Encourage the vocalist to listen closely to the rhythm section. The swing feel depends on the bassist and drummer grooving together, which in turn pulls the vocalist into the pocket.

This fits naturally into a jazz concert second half, either as a palate cleanser after an up-tempo number or as a vehicle to showcase your ensemble's ability to support a vocalist without overwhelming them. It also works beautifully as a feature in a mixed spring concert where you want to present jazz in a more intimate, standard-based context.

• Swing articulation and phrasing in a rhythm section
• Balancing ensemble texture around a vocal soloist
• Listening and responding to a vocalist's tempo choices
• Reading key signatures in both F and C
• Jazz stylistic interpretation beyond straight notation reading