Jazz Ensemble Ballads

This Hoagy Carmichael standard from has remained a staple for jazz musicians for almost a century. With its haunting melody and lush chord progression, this ballad treatment of the tune features your tenor

One of the masterpieces of jazz, this beautifully crafted feature for alto sax uses a variety of styles and settings. Mostly scored as a ballad, there is a jazz waltz section in the middle followed by a

Here is a mysterious, richly scored ballad composed in the Cuban bolero style and featuring a solo flugelhorn. This piece is great to slow things down and show the more expressive side of your ensemble at

This beautiful ballad is the perfect showcase for your alto soloist. The pensive melody and rich harmony combine to create a wonderful change of pace for your program. Starting as a ballad, it moves into an

This Benny Golson ballad has become a standard trumpet or flugelhorn solo feature over the years. This chart is a gorgeous straight-eighth ballad at around 70 bpm that features a flugel soloist while the

This beautiful ballad for developing groups features an alto saxophone soloist with an emphasis on lyricism and rich harmonies. It also features a confident double-time section along with a solidly scored

This beautiful jazz ballad is the perfect showcase for an aspiring trumpet soloist. The pensive melody and rich harmonies combine to create a wonderful change-of-pace chart. While there is a short

Featuring a tenor saxophone soloist, Curveball is in the style of the Ray Charles big band. It opens with huge ensemble brass and bluesy sax lines that switch in and out of a double-time swing

Here is a beautiful trombone solo feature where you can combine forces with a string orchestra in this lush work for jazz ensemble, or jazz ensemble alone. The string orchestra can easily be replaced or

A straight-eighth jazz ballad solo feature for alto saxophone, My Dear features lush ballad sections at about 64 bpm and two double-time swing sections at around 128 bpm. The alto solo part is

This beautiful ballad, scored for young jazz players, is a solo feature for trumpet. With an emphasis on lyricism and rich harmonies, it also includes a double-time solo section that can be

This straight-eighth chart in 3/4 is an accessible trumpet or flugelhorn solo feature with an outstanding jazz ensemble background. In a beautifully quiet ballad style, your developing soloist will shine as

This beautiful ballad is the perfect showcase for a budding alto saxophone soloist. The pensive melody and rich harmony combine to create a wonderful change-of-pace chart. While there is an

This tender ballad stays very playable and makes the perfect choice for an elegant break from swing and rock charts for younger ensembles. Additionally, it features some great dynamic moments along

Alan Baylock has created a sonic landscape for the full ensemble and a tenor saxophone soloist from one of Charles Mingus' most lovely and soulful ballads. The tenor gets the spotlight with an elongated

Based on the version recorded by Clifford Brown accompanied by strings, this marvelous ballad from 1930 provides trumpet or flugel soloists the perfect opportunity to showcase their lyrical chops.

Written for advancing groups to feature any solo instrument, this beautiful ballad with trumpets on flugelhorns changes to a double-time Latin feel for the middle improvisation section. Other than the

One of Carlos Santana's more memorable compositions is this instrumental hit from 1976. Along with Santana's own recording, the version by saxophonist Gato Barbieri also became a hit that same year. This

This laid-back and sultry ballad, set around 62 bpm, features a written alto sax solo that is wonderfully melodic with an optional section for improvisation in the key of F major. The full

Although the first hit recording of this enduring standard was by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1940, Hoagy Carmichael's The Nearness of You has remained popular through the ages with recordings by

A lush jazz ballad solo feature for alto sax, tenor sax or trumpet/flugelhorn, Radiant Morning features a full-ensemble introduction leading into the beautiful and melodic solo. The sax

Oh, yes! This is a superb setting of the iconic jazz ballad that features the alto sax star in your band. The alto solo is mostly written with opportunities to improvise around the melody, and the ensemble

Kris Berg has composed a beautiful, sensitive and mature solo feature for B-flat, E-flat instruments or trombone. The ensemble is equally important in this setting at around 74 bpm that transitions

Here is a wonderfully sensitive jazz ballad that features a tenor sax soloist throughout. This stunningly beautiful work features optional woodwind doubles and lush harmonies with muted brass textures.