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Forum » High School Saxophone » Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?


by jazzina
(18 posts)
18 years ago

Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

Christmas is approaching for Halloween just ended. What are some of the selections you are playing? Also what are some jazz pieces to recommend for Christmas. I appreciate personal advice to the jazz pieces (or warnings). Our band is playing: sleigh ride i'll be home for christmas candlelight vision? some other songs that we got today but I forgot there names because we had to turn them back in yada yada yada... -jazzina

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  2. by Bluewolf
    (3 posts)
    18 years ago

    Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

    In Jazz band, we are playing: Yo Hark Those Angels Swing Funky Old St. Nick Swingin Joy In concert we have: Greensleves Sleigh Ride Winterfest and a version of Angels We Have Heard On High. I like the Jazz ones a lot, except for Yo Hark Those Angels Swing. Its a really good song, but the sax section has A LOT of trouble with it for some reason.

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  3. by straightj23
    (103 posts)
    18 years ago

    Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

    We have all new stuff for this year in Ross. Concert: -Fum, Fum, Fum (a spanish carol by Mannheim Steamroller) -Dashing Through The Snow (a somewhat wierd, but really cool blending of Jingle Bells and a whole array of other Christmas Songs) -A Christmas Festival (Leroy Anderson-a tradition that trades of with Sleigh Ride each year) -Selections from the movie The Polar Express Jazz Band: -A Night in Tunisa -Salt Peanuts -Take Five (I have Tenor Solo) -Leap Frog (I have shared solo w/ alto) -Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -Mistletoe Magic -Jingle Bell Rock (I have Tenor Solo) -songs in two christmas song packs

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  4. by saxjunkie89
    (393 posts)
    18 years ago

    Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

    if the SLEIGH RIDE is the original Leroy Anderson arrangement, that's a good song

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    1. by saxjunkie89
      (393 posts)
      18 years ago

      Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

      by the way, it's a tradition, we play it every year

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      1. by saxmachinedom
        (3 posts)
        18 years ago

        Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

        i'm a jazz band captain in miami, our school is new in the district, and this is the first year we've had a real jazz band. we were thinking of performing "have yourself a merry little christmas," but with vocals. our school yet to even to anything with the chorus. we still don't have any seniors. any suggestions?

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    2. by jenntheflutist
      (11 posts)
      18 years ago

      Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

      You guys play more than one Christmas song? My middle and high school only does one, though one year in middle school we did two. My high school's jazz band doesn't do Christmas stuff, but the middle school jazz band did. Kings of Swing (Arr. Mike Story) easy, 3/4 time, big trumpet sound needed Grade level- Very easy Go Tell it on the Mountain (Arr. Andy Clark) personally, not my fav, don't like what they did to the tune, probably easy for hs, high energy Gr. level- medium easy Silver Bells (arr. John Berry) I liked this one a lot, pretty easy Gr. level- easy Jazz to the World (arr. Mike Story) high energy, 3/4 time, pretty easy Gr. level- very easy Actually I guess none of these are helpful, since I'm assuming this a high school level you're looking for? Hope I helped some! -jenntheflutist

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    3. by Sax alert
      (15 posts)
      18 years ago

      Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

      My Hs band is playing "In the Springtime When Kings Go Off To War". It is 11 1/2 minutes long!! It's also written for very experienced College bands! It has thirtysecond note chromatic runs ranging for low Bb to High F. It 's an extremely difficult piece. The sound is absolutly breathtaking.

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      1. by YanagisawA-901
        (312 posts)
        18 years ago

        Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

        this year our sole christmas tune: "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" Music by Jule Styne and arranged by John Berry that song is nuts.. like someone else up there, were looking at sleigh ride as well.. if its the same one.. i think ours is like, a grade 4.. starts with a sax soli on the melody..

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        1. by checkster
          (9 posts)
          18 years ago

          Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

          We do a few shows that people ask for Christmas shows. The only good one we do is a decent version of I'll be home for Christmas. we also do Little Town of Bethlehem and some other ridiculously simple tunes.

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          1. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            sax alert.. i hear u on that.. i belieeveee i have heard a small demo of that piece, if not somthing similar its really hard to find intermediate level christmas music today.. its either, hella easy and sounds stupid.. or hella hard and sounds amazing.. were playing 2 amazing songs, and one cheesy hahaha

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          2. by jazzina
            (18 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            Yes, concert pieces are easy... it's like no one makes good music anymore... all todays music is unoriginal and so over played (plus cheesy) why can't people make beautiful pieces anymore? what's so hard about having a fun creative touch on Christmas music... for pete's sake... it is the season of merry-ment (new word cannot find it in a regular dictionary) make it merrier. our new song is pure funeral march... christmas is not about dying or falling asleep or zoning out in the middle of the chorus/carol... i hate the mixed version of "I'll be Home for Christmas" so elementary style because it's a new song without any merry kick!!!!! the earth is now coming to an end or i'm CRAZY!!!!

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          3. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            lil update for ya guys Jazz Concert will be: Sleigh Ride: Words by Mitchell Parish, Music by Leroy Anderson, Arranged by Dave Wolpe The Christmas Song: Arranged by Paul Jennings Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow: Arranged by John Berry those are all the holiday songs were playing.. i think we have 2 or 3 other songs that are just..songs, that were gonna play haha

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          4. by saxs_make_it_happen
            (42 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            My little 30 piece band :P played Sleigh Ride-Leroy Anderson Let it Snow Carrol of the bells White Christmas and...get this........RUDOLPH! lol the others are fun though, sleigh ride is fun to play especially where the melody switches to jazzy for a bit and carrol of the bells is fun to listen to even though theres eight hundred thousand arrangements of it out there lol.

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          5. by karebear1012
            (395 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            we just had our winter concerts ^_^ the wind ensemble played: - a movement for rosa - sleigh ride (with the concert band) - linden lea (with the concert band) - malaguena - english folk song suite in jazz band we played: - session samba - swingin shepard blues - emily ...one other song which i can't remember... yeah, our jazz band is pretty much horrible. but the wind ensemble is good ^_^

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          6. by saxjunkie89
            (393 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            We played 9 songs this year for the christmas concert, last night actually ( IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, only in the order that I remembered them) -Rhapsody on Christmas Carols( buncha different melodies -Sleigh Ride (traditional, by Leroy Anderson) -Wexford Carol (awesome song, based on Irish tune) -Christmas Festival (traditional for us, the original Leroy Anderson edition) -We Three Kings (Jazzed up, A+T saxes and F. Horns w/lead, trumpets and bones on typical horn parts) -Rudolph's Christmas Concert (Rudolph has a Band?) -First Noel (really easy bari part, easy for rest of band also) -Russian Christmas Music (our lead alto squeaked in a solo where absolutely no one else was playing, argh! Oh, and there's a bass sax part, but our school does not have a bass unfortunately) -The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting...)

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          7. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            dude russian christmas music is a harrrddd tune.. howd u guys pull that one off?? the crowd enjoy it?? i kno our "token" christmas song that we playd was let is snow let it snow let it snow its a trombone feature i think they go up to a E for them which is just insane crowd loved it

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          8. by saxjunkie89
            (393 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            for some of the songs we are already practicing for spring, the bones go up to G, on the third part...

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          9. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            im horrible at transposition.. i kno that the highest note they played was an alto sax B or C.. cant even remember.. almost posative thats a D or E in bone.. thats impressive if your "boners" are hitting a G ... especially for high school players what song u guys lookn at?

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          10. by Sax alert
            (15 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            That IS quite impressive for a high school "Boner". My schools trombones have a bad habit of blatting everything. Plus the lead T-bone also trys to vibrato everything. (It sounds awful) Kind of like a coughing duck. And if the Alto's B and C are Altissimo I'm impressed.

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          11. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            well i was referring the the bones.. thier hightest note sounded an alot B or C

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          12. by saxjunkie89
            (393 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            well, it's interesting, the THIRD part gets a high G, so the first might even get a high B on their Part

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          13. by YanagisawA-901
            (312 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            maybeeee... they play in unison.. lol

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          14. by Sax alert
            (15 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            Then I guess my schools trombones kinda suck. LOL. It's kinda bad when our lead bone can be outplayed by an 8th grader.

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          15. by saxgrobie
            (86 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            I play tenor in my school's jazz band, just had to switch from alto.... We had several concerts in different places, mostly local churches and stuff. We played: ~God Rest You Merry Gentlemen- this one was like a funk version. It was really fun and the crowd seemed to like it, but not too hard. My director called it our "warm-up piece." ~I'll Be Home For Christmas- Good old-fashioned swing style ~Away in a Manger- jazz waltz. I played a short solo in this one ~Jingle Bells- My favorite song. It was a '60s style fast swing. Really fun and kinda hard. But the hard ones are always the most fun, aren't they? ~Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer- This song was crazy. It changed styles a bajillion different times. It was like salsa, swing, shuffle, rock, ballad, everything! It wasn't too hard for the saxes, but killer on the "boners", lol. Really high for them. Kelsey

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          16. by saxjunkie89
            (393 posts)
            18 years ago

            Re: Christmas Concerts Jazz and Conert Band Pieces... what are you playing?

            oh yeah, the third part is played by two people, one on tenor bone, and the other on bass

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          17. by Sunyveil
            (11 posts)
            18 years ago

            high school trombone players?

            haha the second trombone at my school has ridiculous range... he can hit like an F, which is a high D on alto or altissimo G on tenor. Whenever he has a solo he ends it with a gliss up to that note, which is interesting because his facial expression is somewhat strange and the tone sounds like a squeal

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          18. by Sunyveil
            (11 posts)
            18 years ago

            winter concert piece

            our wind ensemble played: pas redouble (interesting little french tune... pretty easy but pretty cool) Russian Christmas Music (it's not that hard, despite what yani-A901 says. the alto soloist at our school isn't that great... but he's a senior and I"m a sophmore so he got to play the solo. oh well. still, it's a really cool piece, and our school has the trombones to play it) our jazz band played: ms. BC accross the train tracks blues (HA THE COCKY FIRST TRUMPET SOLOIST MESSED UP MUAHAHA) chestnuts roasting on an open fire

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          19. by moonpioneer
            (17 posts)
            17 years ago

            Re: high school trombone players?

            thats wek my 1st bone can get the Bb above that.. and hes face is still normal and no tone sqeekiness. bones were ment for bassclef for a reason..lest just say..

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