Little Lagniappe

Commissioned for SATB jazz choir with tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums by the Oakland Jazz Choir (Oakland, California). The piece is based in a New Orleans feel: straight- and swing-eighth 3-2 Streetbeat, plus the Latin-tinged 2-3 Songo. The lyrics focus on some of the wonderful meals, ingredients, and tasty names of some of the colorful cuisines of the Crescent City (with pronunciation keys for some French and Cajun words). Included in the middle of this composition a recitation by one choir member of a soup recipe: perhaps the only "Cajun-chef rap" in vocal jazz choir repertoire! Sheet music provided includes a full score, a choral score with a rehearsal piano part (a hybrid of the actual piano and bass parts), a rehearsal piano reduction of the SATB parts, and the separate parts for piano, bass, drums, and tenor sax. Though improvisation is preferable within the solos, optional written sax and vocal solos are provided. Lagniappe ("lan-yap") is a phrase used in New Orleans to describe "a little something extra," as a chef may provide to a patron at a restaurant or bakery. So "laissez bon temps roulez!" (Let the good times roll!) SATB w/ Rhythm and Jazz Vocalist