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Program Notes Personnel/Production Credits Click on a title below to hear the recording in MP3 format (some titles not available).
1 | ALONE TOGETHER 9:46
DIETZ/SCHWARTZ/ARR.SFC SCOTT ARCANGEL Lyrics by HOWARD DIETZ
Music by ARTHUR SCHWARTZ © 1932 (Renewed) WARNER BROS. INC.All Rights
for the Extended Term of Copyright in the U.S. Controlled by WB MUSIC
CORP. and ARTHUR SCHWARTZ MUSIC.
2 | AT FIRST LIGHT 7:47*
JEFFREY WAYNE HOLMES (BMI)
3 | THE MONSTER BROOKS NO
PRETENSE 7:58*
MIKE FAHIE
4 | SUO GAN 7:25
TRADITIONAL/ARR.SSG MIKE REIFENBERG
5 | DANGEROUS GROUND 8:33 SSG DERRICK JAMES/ARR.SSG MARK TONELLI
6 | SECRET LOVE 10:51
FAIN/WEBSTER/ARR.SSG MARK TONELLI Words by PAUL FRANCIS
WEBSTER Music by SAMMY FAIN © 1953 (Renewed) WB MUSIC CORP.
7 | THE STAKEOUT 7:57 SFC SCOTT ARCANGEL
8 | SAMBA FOR MEGAN 7:26 SSG MIKE REIFENBERG
9 | THE BASILISK 9:04 SSG MIKE REIFENBERG *Used by permission from the composer Alone Together is an old standard. This chart was arranged by Sgt. 1st Class Scott Arcangel to feature Staff Sgt. Mike Reifenberg on alto saxophone and Staff Sgt. Eric Ordway on trombone. Sgt. 1st Class Arcangel notes: The idea for Alone Together was to
take a tune that everybody has played and make it sound fresh again. I
used the Picardy third ending to the “A” sections of the tune as a basis
to re-harmonize the entire melody, essentially placing the major third
as the root underneath its own minor chord. This gives the entire song a
“harmonic major” flavor. I’ve always felt that some sections of the
melody would lend themselves well to a meter change. This adds to the
floaty feel of the piece. It’s a tune that everybody loves to blow on,
so after a few reharm choruses, it opens up over the standard form. A
rascally sax soli evolves into a chorus, pitting the entire ensemble
against the drummer. The overall Latin style of At First
Light pits smoother and woodier sounds of the clarinets and
flugelhorn against intro and interlude material that gives a nod to
Earth Wind &Fire. The counter line the second time through the melody is
reminiscent for me of an arranging flourish that Chick Corea utilized
with Joe Farrell's flute on the Light as a Feather recording.
After more conventional solo spots for flugelhorn and/or tenor, there is
a clarinet soli that has exchanges with a solo trombone. The solo
trombone timbre ultimately morphs to the entire section being voiced.
The melody remains fairly horizontal and repetitive with rhythmic
syncopation and shifting chord changes and harmonic twists. It is not
necessarily a loud big band outing but a more warmed jazz ensemble/jazz
orchestra composition with some hotter ensemble burnishing. The Monster Brooks No Pretense is
a unique piece for me, because most of my pieces begin with a melodic
idea, or a mood idea, but this one started with an intervallic idea. The
shifting 5ths through the brass and saxes were the starting point of
this piece, and it developed from there. The drummer solos through most
of the piece, first against ensemble rhythms, then with a trumpet
soloist, and later with a saxophone soloist. There is tension between a
slow swing groove and an uptempo swing, and both develop the intervallic
voicing idea that I started with. Through the heart of the tune it seems
that the uptempo swing dominates, but the slow groove comes back at the
end, and the monster makes his appearance in the trombone section. Suo Gan is originally a Welsh folk
song - the lullabye of a mother singing her child to sleep. More well
known however is the Steven Spielberg movie that brought this simple
tune to the forefront of American popular culture, Empire of the Sun,
which I first saw as a middle school child. With its beautiful and
amazingly simple AABA melody that has stuck with me throughout the
years, this arrangement of Suo Gan for the Jazz Knights features
our lead tenor saxophonist, Staff Sgt. David Loy Song, with an emphasis
on simplicity and beauty. An extended solo section after the first
statement of the melody shows off the ability of the band to take
something so placid and peaceful and build it to unimaginable heights,
culminating in a beautiful brass chorale. I attempted to keep this
arrangement quite simple, while focusing on the use of various colors,
including a full reed section, arco bass, muted trombone, drums sans
sticks (using mallets instead), flugelhorns, and using piano as more
than just a comping instrument. Two very strong personalities [or themes] emerged from the original small group arrangement of Dangerous Ground to act as thematic development and compositional unification. First was the seven-note hook that opens the head. A real trooper, it proved itself a supple and tireless main theme, willing to endure my endless stretching, contracting, transposing, and setting it over different meters and tempos, even accepting use as a rhythm for the bass line heard at the beginning and end of the arrangement. The second theme includes a half note, dotted quarter note, eighth note figure. By contrast, this theme is more stubborn. It inserts itself insistently throughout the work and is sometimes heard together with the main theme. Ultimately, not content to remain a secondary theme, it temporarily pushes the main theme off the score and dominates in the guitar solo with a series of shifting triads over an Eb pedal tone. Secret Love is an old standard played by many jazz musicians. Staff Sgt. Mark Tonelli slowed the tempo from its “standard tempo” and added an interesting harmonic twist that gives a nod to the classic John Coltrane Quartet. It features solos by Staff Sgt. Mike Reifenberg on soprano saxophone and Staff Sgt. John Castleman on flugelhorn. Staff Sgt. Tonelli says of this arrangement: I stumbled upon an intriguing chord
progression, Eb-Bmaj7-E7, while practicing one day. I was warming up
with Secret Love in the same key, and decided to pursue the three
chords, marrying them to a slower version of that jam session chestnut.
The arrangement evolved into something of a Coltranean vibe, complete
with a 12/8 Afro-Cuban groove, soprano sax playing the melody, and the
band responding with Trane turnarounds. There is also a good deal of the
spirit of Thad Jones (almost impossible for me to avoid), particularly
in the saxophone soli. To shake things up further, I added a 7/4 vamp,
which simultaneously extends the last bar of the head and provides a
sendoff for the soprano sax solo while conveniently remaining available
for an ending. Samba for Megan was originally
composed for saxophone quintet for my Master of Music-Jazz Studies
recital at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2005. After
three years sitting in a desk drawer (the chart, not me), it was time to
resurrect it for this CD project. Adapting it for jazz ensemble proved
somewhat challenging, as I naturally had to expound on many features of
the original arrangement. Meant to be a light-hearted, playful tribute
to my wife of over three years, this original utilizes a unique (but
hopefully organic) ABA form, consisting of sections of 19, 8, and 18
measures. The “A” sections of the piece are loosely based on the
standard There Will Never Be Another You (even though I didn't really
consciously make that decision - it just turned out that way). The structure of the tune is a not-so-standard thirteen-bar minor blues in 7/4. “At the time, I was working on various things, including altered pentatonics, fourths, and just generally messing with forms, and this is the wacky result,” said Staff Sgt. Reifenberg. After a statement of the melody, this track features a solo from lead trumpet player Staff Sgt. John Castleman. Between Ensemble sections, the composer stretches out on alto saxophone and then features an explosive drum solo by the Jazz Knights’ newest member, Staff Sgt. Scott Drewes. DIRECTOR RHYTHM SECTION TRUMPETS TROMBONES REEDS Recorded at Bennett
Studios in Englewood, NJ
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