Straight No Chaser

Monk's famous swing standard is arranged here with careful scoring and characteristic background figures. The relaxed swing style with a bop influence frames the famous long-line melody well in this chart that starts quietly, builds, then features a quiet shout chorus before the cool ending. The underlying blues form helps make this attainable by young players and easy for beginning improvisers to handle. The solos are notated or improvised for piano and tenor sax. A great introduction to a jazz legend! Arranged for full jazz ensemble, it's playable with as few as four saxes, three trumpets, three trombones and rhythm. Highly recommended!