"Children of the Night" (W. Shorter) - transcribed by Gerry Amato - Art Abrams Swing Machine, 1998

Composed by Wayne Shorter in 1961 when he was with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. I was requested by Art Abrams, a Portland jazz musician and big band leader, to arrange, or more precisely, transcribe this chart off of a Billy May recording from the same year, 1961. I was soon put to a different kind of challenge. Having only a basic lead sheet of the tune, I was faced with picking out all the voices and harmony by ear. A great standard in the jazz literature, it was a wonderful project. I learned a lot about jazz scoring after transcribing Billy May's cool arrangement.
The high trumpet playing was on the original Billy May recording with Conrad Gozzo doing his usual screech duty. Here you have the pleasure of listening to The Art Abrams Swing Machine perform it magnificently on one of their CDs from the late 90s. I wish I had a real big band like this playing all my charts! Thanks Art.

[@dmprdctns]

A pleasure indeed... I love it... and resonate with it... and that sax solo...! Thanks...

[@sherylrussell4706]

I miss hearing these guys.😢

[@revdeandawg]

Is there a list of the personnel on the this recording? Who is playing the screech trumpet part?

[@gerryamatomusic]

Thanks for listening. I think that was Greg Garrett, a local Portlander. Conrad Gozzo did the original Billy May recording.