Today, you are a member of… The Arrangement
Here’s the thing about music, members, and Jazz in particular: if everybody goes off spaz in a solo shop all at once, free form becomes cacophony pretty fast. And, the philosophically valid bent of murder electronixs aside, said form is hard to listen to for extended periods of time. So back in the roaring 20s, when soloing broke as the hot new method, jazz musicians started writing the notes down, arranging instruments to make room for a firecracker or two without driving the dancers for the door. Though never as illustrious a profession as soloist, arrangers tend to be the ones with the vision for how that solo gets into an ear. So this week as one that holds the 109th birthday of the arranging genius Don Redman, the arrangement to keep in mind is this: you might not be in the spotlight but the dance floor is all yours.
