Current Projects Page
This page will contain a list of the current projects being undertaken by members of the group. If you would like to participate in or help out with any of these projects, please post a notice on the forum, and the person driving the project will get back with you.
List of projects:
The Stan Kenton Dectets Project
Manuscript (Handwriting) Identification Project
Leeds Original Manuscript Series
The Stan Kenton Dectets Project
Please go to this page for information and details about the Stan Kenton Dectets project.
The Manuscript (Handwriting) Identification Project
Please go to this page for information and details about this project.
The London Orchestrations
We are currently collecting data; assembling it into a Google Docs spreadsheet. You can see that spreadsheet by clicking here.
The Hal Leonard Jazz Combo Paks (Ongoing)
Thanks to the hard work of many members, as of March 29, 2012, we are only short TWO charts out of about 130 officially published in the series.
Your help would be greatly appreciated if you could help us with the following charts...
PAK 17 - Missing charts:
•Little Boat
•Make Someone Happy
The arranger is Frank Mantooth. The charts are scored, Bb, C, Eb, Bass, Drums, Piano & Guitar. Again, this pak of charts is long out of print and can't be purchased anywhere. If you would please take a couple of minutes to check to see if you might have these charts, it would be greatly appreciated. (Project Driver: Trevor)
Playing Swing Music (Completed)
This project was completed several years ago, headed up by Hans J, who compiled the document with the help of many others in the group. In his words, "There were too many contributors to name (and I've forgotten some, I'm sure). Any errors or omissions are mine."
This document contains some great information, some of it not available anywhere else.
Download the PDF file here.
Francis & Day's Orchettes, arranged by Charles Waygood (Ongoing)
Published 1941 by Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd.
This is a collection of 20 songs in 4 volumes, each volume published in 6 books. Below you will find a list of what we already have, and what we are still looking for. (Project driver: Arnie)
Four volumes, each published in four books:
Book 1 - Piano
Book 2 - Bass & Violin
Book 3 - Drums & Guitar
Book 4 - Trumpet & Trombone
Book 5 - 1st Alto & 1st Tenor
Book 6 - 2nd Alto & 2nd Tenor
Here's what we have. Of course, what we don't have, we're still looking for.
Volume 1 - Books 1, 2 (partial), 4, 5 and 6 (partial)
Volume 2 - Books 1, 4, and 5
Volume 3 - (None)
Volume 4 - Books 3, 4, 5 and 6
Song titles in this series:
|
Volume 1 You're Driving Me Crazy She's Funny That Way I Never Knew (That Roses Grew) Love Is The Sweetest Thing My Blue Heaven Volume 2 It Had To Be You They Didn't believe Me Blue Moon Poor Butterfly Don't Be That Way |
Volume 3 China Boy After You've Gone In A Little Spanish Town The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else) Bye Bye Blackbird Volume 4 My Melancholy Baby Miss Annabelle Lee Ragtime Cowboy Joe Shine On Harvest Moon A Broken Doll |
Combo Orks Project (Ongoing)
In the wake of the Big Band Era came the “Combo Ork”. This unique style of arranging was designed for 2 or 3-horn small dance combos.
Combo Orks were usually published in sets of three books (C, Bb, and Eb). Each book included melody lead, harmony parts, and chord changes. Many combo ork sets even included a bass line and rhythm guides. This format allowed the material to be played by an almost unlimited variety of instrumentation.
A mainstay of the 1950s, these books gave you a full arrangement for three horns and rhythm on one page, and about fifteen tunes in each book. Combo orks spanned genres from Dixieland to Mambo, Bluegrass and Old-Time Country, Swing and yes, even some classical.
You don't see products like this anymore.
The BigBandCharts group has collected and catalogued many of these historic treasures. Post a message (in the group email) if you'd like the latest updated library list, to see what we currently have and how you can help by filling in some of the missing books. We will happily send copies of our holdings to you, so that you may fill in your own sets too.
Enjoy!
Matt Matlak, project coordinator.
The Dave Wolpe Project (Completed)
About a year ago, in 2011, we contacted Dave Wolpe (a fine writer and certainly one of our most prolific) in an effort to obtain parts for some of his charts that were no longer available from the publishers. When it turned out that Dave no longer had copies of these titles either, he made us a generous offer. If we could locate existing copies, and combine them to make up complete sets of parts, he would reward us with copies of our choice of any charts that he currently had for sale on his website. I posted a "challenge" to the group, and over a period of only five weeks, we actually were able to find and complete over 75 "lost" charts!
Amazingly, these 18 charts were found in Europe within ONE WEEK of the initial posting.
01 After The Lovin'
02 Bluer Than Blue
03 Celebration
04 Chips
05 Feelings
06 Ghostbusters
07 Have You Met Miss Jones
08 Hello There
09 If You Don't Know Me By Now
10 Love Theme from St Elmo's Fire
11 Master Blaster Jammin
12 On The Road Again
13 Once Is Not Enough
14 Rise
15 Star Wars Medley (TWO different versions)
16 Taste Of Honey
17 The Way He Makes Me Feel
18 When You're Loved
It was a huge amount of work, but we made a very good friend in the bargain. In the year since the project was completed, Dave has been re-releasing some of these charts in brand new Finale-engraved editions.
- Arnie
The Leeds Original Manuscript Series (Ongoing)
From 1940 to 1947 Leeds published a series of big band charts which it called its "Original Manuscript Series." These arrangements attempted to present music as performed by various important jazz bands, rather than (as most stocks did) present a version made accessible for the band of medium ability.
Arnie & Trevor started collecting, scanning and cleaning existing copies of the Leeds Original Manuscript Series in February, 2011. Starting with only four charts of the original series, they both took to the task of requesting specific titles and asking for help from many. This project has even taken them to the Library of Congress for assistance in completing the collection. To date, more than 60 of the 100+ charts have been successfully identified, scanned, cleaned, corrected and preserved for generations to come. If you have any of these Leeds Manuscript Series charts, please contact Arnie or Trevor.
- Arnie
Next project:
(Writeup goes here.)
New entries to come as we receive well researched and well-written submissions.
Please click on any of the links at the top of the page for more information on any of the listed topics.