Jazz Arranging & Composing: Book & Online Audio

This book gives you the actual tools used by Ellington, Strayhorn, Evans, and Fischer, then shows you exactly how they work across real scores. Your students won't just study jazz history; they'll understand the mechanics of professional arranging from someone who learned by close analysis of the masters.

Rigorous and revelatory. You're not reading theory in a vacuum; you're learning by dissecting the actual choices made by musicians you admire. The methodology feels like apprenticeship with the masters.

Jazz educators teaching arranging and composition courses, as well as serious students who want to understand the writing techniques of jazz's most influential figures. The book serves arrangers and composers of any level working in small jazz ensembles.

• Use the six complete scores to hear the concept in action. Play the horn parts on piano to understand voice leading before tackling full ensemble performance.
• Listen to the recorded performances while following the written scores. This trains your ear to connect the theoretical principle on the page to the sound you're working toward.
• Study the rhythm section chapter alongside a bassist and drummer in the ensemble. The clarity on comping and bass line construction prevents common coordination problems in the section.
• Work through multiple harmonizations of the same melody in sequence. Hearing different solutions back-to-back makes the expressive and textural choices tangible.

Pair this with a jazz ensemble or lab band that can rehearse and perform the provided scores. It works equally well as the core text for an arranging elective or as supplementary material for advanced musicians developing their own compositional voice.

• Harmonizing melodies using multiple approaches and styles
• Voice leading for two, three, four, and five-piece horn sections
• Linear writing and counterpoint in jazz contexts
• Composing functional bass lines and comping patterns for rhythm sections
• Analyzing form and developing extended compositional structures
• Recognizing and applying signature techniques of major jazz arrangers