The score is marked to be played with a Zydeco feel, yet the writing of the wind parts is more evocative of an American Western symphonic suite, in the vein of Aaron Copland or a spaghetti Western movie from the 50s/60s, than a New Orleans Zydeco vibe. Kind of clever of DeRosa to see the rhythmic similarities between the two and try to interplay them as an experiment, but the result just feels weird. I suspect that the way the rhythm section interprets it can make a huge difference-as it always does, but in this case, it might be able to define whether the arrangement works at all (as it often does). So I’m looking at the Drums part, and it’s becoming clear that although it is edited to LOOK like a very specific snare/bass part (which is unusual for jazz ensemble writing at the advanced level), I might have to interpret it very differently than what’s written. The way the editor (Bob Curnow) chose to write repeated sections for the drum chart makes no sense, either. A good chart should be easy to tie together visually with what we hear. This page is really convoluted, and unnecessarily stretched into 4 pages! EDIT: I may have figured out the problem. The the drum part is written as if to show syncopated snare and bass drum parts, suggesting a Second Line feel. Those rhythms happen to coincide with the band parts. But they are not the rhythms played on drums in Zydeco music. It is common, I think, to mix up Zydeco and Second Line grooves. If we read those chart as literal drum parts, we will make that mistake. If we read the notes as cues, telling us what the band is playing, we (the drummer/rhythm section) can actually play a Zydeco beat. This will make much more sense in the context of the harmonies that sound more like the American West than like the Blues, and the Hoe-Down section makes more sense too, because it’s basically a train beat. This piece was arranged for one of the top big bands in the world, the WDR radio big band in Germany. So the lesson is: even top level professional drum charts can be written in misleading ways. To some degree, we might say that’s just bad work on the arranger’s/editor’s part, but more often it’s the result of the widely varying demands placed on the drummer and rhythm section with each piece. There almost CAN’T be a standard way to write drum charts (although some aspects certainly benefit from consistent conventions) because the information the arranger wants to give the drummer varies so much. It varies even more when the arranger isn’t sure what the drummer does and doesn’t need to be told on the page. Next time we read through this, I’m gonna test my theory and play a Zydeco train beat. We shall see what happens. Wish I could find a recording of the WDR band playing this…
Totally agree. I'm the drummer for my high school jazz band and we are playing this arrangement for our Christmas Concert in December. I've basically ditched trying to read the music on the page (as I often do) because it's so poorly written, and playing that specific snare/bass split kinda screws up how the song sounds. This recording has given me a much better idea of how I should play
The score is marked to be played with a Zydeco feel, yet the writing of the wind parts is more evocative of an American Western symphonic suite, in the vein of Aaron Copland or a spaghetti Western movie from the 50s/60s, than a New Orleans Zydeco vibe. Kind of clever of DeRosa to see the rhythmic similarities between the two and try to interplay them as an experiment, but the result just feels weird. I suspect that the way the rhythm section interprets it can make a huge difference-as it always does, but in this case, it might be able to define whether the arrangement works at all (as it often does).
So I’m looking at the Drums part, and it’s becoming clear that although it is edited to LOOK like a very specific snare/bass part (which is unusual for jazz ensemble writing at the advanced level), I might have to interpret it very differently than what’s written. The way the editor (Bob Curnow) chose to write repeated sections for the drum chart makes no sense, either. A good chart should be easy to tie together visually with what we hear. This page is really convoluted, and unnecessarily stretched into 4 pages!
EDIT: I may have figured out the problem. The the drum part is written as if to show syncopated snare and bass drum parts, suggesting a Second Line feel. Those rhythms happen to coincide with the band parts. But they are not the rhythms played on drums in Zydeco music. It is common, I think, to mix up Zydeco and Second Line grooves. If we read those chart as literal drum parts, we will make that mistake. If we read the notes as cues, telling us what the band is playing, we (the drummer/rhythm section) can actually play a Zydeco beat. This will make much more sense in the context of the harmonies that sound more like the American West than like the Blues, and the Hoe-Down section makes more sense too, because it’s basically a train beat. This piece was arranged for one of the top big bands in the world, the WDR radio big band in Germany. So the lesson is: even top level professional drum charts can be written in misleading ways. To some degree, we might say that’s just bad work on the arranger’s/editor’s part, but more often it’s the result of the widely varying demands placed on the drummer and rhythm section with each piece. There almost CAN’T be a standard way to write drum charts (although some aspects certainly benefit from consistent conventions) because the information the arranger wants to give the drummer varies so much. It varies even more when the arranger isn’t sure what the drummer does and doesn’t need to be told on the page. Next time we read through this, I’m gonna test my theory and play a Zydeco train beat. We shall see what happens.
Wish I could find a recording of the WDR band playing this…
Totally agree. I'm the drummer for my high school jazz band and we are playing this arrangement for our Christmas Concert in December. I've basically ditched trying to read the music on the page (as I often do) because it's so poorly written, and playing that specific snare/bass split kinda screws up how the song sounds. This recording has given me a much better idea of how I should play
Can you please add some information about this arrangement, ie: who is the arranger?
Richard DeRosa
Arranged by Richard De Rosa, not sure about the choreographer. 8^/