Needledrop

Needledrop is a short, through-composed piece with no improvisation. Thinking of a "needle drop" as a kind of excerpt, something brief and picked up mid-stream, where the key to the thing is obscured or hidden... in a different track, or on the other side of the record. Needledrop has a mysterious quality: it's not telling the whole story. Musically, this is a medium-slow, even-8th piece. It requires a vibraphone, and a solid reader in the piano chair. The first trumpet part has some moody, written-out solos (not high notes), so it is ideal for an advanced young band that is mostly inexperienced in improvisation but is otherwise ready to handle more mature music (lead trumpet's highest note is D6).