Arrangement

• Combo Arrangements
• Arrangements for Larger Ensembles
• Arrangement and Composition

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

When performing a composition, jazz musicians do not generally just play the theme in unison and then move on to the next composition. The head might be only 32 measures long and take less than a minute, yet a performance of the composition might last much longer, and even while the theme is being played, not all of the musicians will be playing the melody. It is the arrangement that directs what the musicians play when they are not playing the theme. The arrangement may be written, or it may be memorized, or discussed and agreed upon before playing, or it may simply be improvised.

Combo Arrangements

The simplest and most common type of arrangement for a jazz combo is the head arrangement, which follows the general outline of head-solos-head, with an optional introduction and ending.

If an introduction is played, it may have its own composed melody:

Or it might be improvised, based on given chord changes:

During the head, which may or may not be repeated, the melody instruments play the theme while the rhythm section improvises accompaniment based on the chord progression:

After the head comes the solo section. During this section, the musicians then take turns soloing over the same chord progression used for the head. This progression is played over and over by the rhythm section. The following example shows trumpet and piano solos for the tune displayed above:

Each time through the progression is called a chorus, and a soloist may take one or more choruses or portions of choruses before going on to the next soloist or the return to the head.

After the final time through the head, there is often an additional final section called a coda, which, like the introduction, may have a written melody or be improvised. Here is an example of a coda:

Here is a complete performance of a head arrangement. Try to follow along with the outline given below as you listen:

In a combo, a head arrangement can be performed from a lead sheet containing only the melody and chord progression for the theme; no additional written material is required. The rhythm section improvises their own parts based on the chord changes, in keeping with the style of the composition. The musicians decide amongst themselves before or during the performance what the order of the soloists will be and how many choruses each will take, who should play the head, whether to take the head once or twice at the beginning and end, and whether or not to add an introduction or a coda.

The head arrangement is quite similar to the sonata-allegro form often used in classical music: introduction - exposition - development - recapitulation - coda. The terms exposition and recapitulation simply refer to the statement and restatement of the theme. The development section in classical music is conceptually similar to the solo section in jazz: it is where the composer develops the ideas presented in the theme. Ironically, the classical composer is generally able to take more liberties during the development section than jazz musicians can during solos. The classical composer is under no constraints to follow the original chord progression or stay in the original key.

In jazz, musicians tend to keep following the original chord progression, as discusssed earlier. But they can choose to be more free in the solo section if they wish. They usually have to sacrifice traditional harmony when doing this with a group, as it is extremely unlikely that several musicians will be able to stay together as they improvise new chord progressions. For example, here is a jazz theme:

And here is an excerpt from the solo section of an arrangement of that tune that calls for free improvisation:

Another alternative is to write out chord progressions for solos that differ from the progression used for the head. The same head-solos-head outline may be followed, but the solos are designed to provide more contrast with the theme. Often, the solo changes are a simplification of the original changes; perhaps even just a vamp. For example, here is an excerpt from the theme to a jazz composition:

And here is an excerpt from the solo section of an arrangement of that tune that calls for a vamp instead of the original chord progression:

Rather than repeat the same progression of chords over and over again, an arrangement may insert vamps or other phrases called interludes that interrupt the succession of choruses at selected points in the arrangement, such as between solos. That approach is taken in the following example:

A common place for an interlude is between the head and the first solo, or sometimes between each solo. If everyone knows the expected interlude, these can be used in simple head arrangements as well as in notated arrangements. Normally, the leader or whoever is soloing at the time will cue these interludes, just as the succession of soloists is cued.

Arrangements for Larger Ensembles

Head arrangements are commonly used in combos. The general outline of a head arrangement is often used for larger ensembles as well, but more of the arrangement tends to be notated. Things like intros, interludes, and codas are specified in writing. Arrangements that are largely written out are often referred to as scores or charts. Usually the part for each melody instrument is almost completely written out except for improvised solos. If a solo is indicated for a particular player, his part at that point in the arrangement will usually contain symbols representing the chord progression. The arrangement will often specify precisely who solos where, and for how long, although sometimes a particular section is left open to the discretion of the performers to decide who should solo; the chord changes will usually be written into the parts for each player.

In order to take full advantage of the tonal possibilities of the big band, arrangements often contain more than just the head and a succession of solos. When the theme is played, it is often played by a subset of the players; the other players are often given background figures. A common technique is to give the melody to one section, either in unison or in harmony:

The melody may also be arranged for a group consisting of several instruments of different types:

Background figures are most often organized by section:

The parts for the rhythm section usually consist primarily of the chord changes, and the players can improvise their own parts as in a combo. However, there are often specific figures called "kicks" notated in passages where the horn players are playing particularly tightly arranged phrases and the rhythm section needs to lock in with them:

Even in such places, often only the intended rhythms are notated, and the players are still free to improvise their own parts within those guidelines. Some arrangers tend to give more freedom to the rhythm section than others.

Besides the head and improvised solos, most big band arrangements contain an introduction and a coda as well as additional sections after the head, between solos, or after the solos and before a return to the head. These additional sections may be contrapunctal, consisting of rhythmically independent parts for each section of the band:

Or, more often, the additional sections may be rhythmically in unison. These passages are often referred to as shout choruses:

Many written arrangements also alter the chord progression more subtly from chorus to chorus, keeping the same basic flow, but substituting more colorful chords at particular points in the arrangement. An arrangement may also contain changes of key, also called modulations. These may occur between the head and a shout chorus, between shout choruses, between a shout chorus and a solo, between solos, or anywhere the arranger wishes to create the feeling of change that a modulation provides:

Arrangement and Composition

An arrangement can generally be considered independently from the composition itself. In fact, it is often the case that the arrangement is written by someone other than the composer. A composition often consists of a single theme, and different arrangements of the same composition may have only that theme in common. They may contain different introductions, different codas, different shout choruses, and different chord progressions. They may be played in different keys. The theme might be played by different sets of instruments, and the background figures may differ as well. The underlying feel also may differ between the arrangements. Often, two different arrangements of the same composition will sound in most respects like two different compositions entirely. Here is the theme from one arrangement of a tune:

And here is the theme from another arrangement of the same composition:

In some cases, certain features of one particular arrangement have become so indelibly associated with the composition that other arrangers tend to incorporate these features into their own arrangements. For example, many arrangements of the Thelonious Monk composition "Round Midnight" contain the following brief shout originally popularized by trumpet player Miles Davis:

It is particularly difficult in the case of long form compositions to separate the composition from the arrangement. There may be several themes and several different improvised passages; the placement of these sections may be specified as part of the composition, or it may be left to the arrangement. Often, one cannot determine which is which unless one hears more than arrangement of the same composition. Features that are common to the two performances can be assumed to be part of the composition, and things that differ can be assumed to be artifacts of the arrangement.

Here is an example of my long form composition, "Mystic Reverie". The chart below shows how the different sections fit together. There are several different themes, and several different settings for improvisation, including one that is free. Try to follow along as you listen:

Whether playing a simple head arrangement or a highly structured arrangement of a long form composition, there is usually still room for variation from performance to performance. Indeed, just as it can be difficult to distinguish between composition and arrangement, it can also be difficult to draw a line between arrangement and performance. This is the subject of the next section.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Arrangement