Artie Shaw

Bedford Drive

Written and arranged by Buster Harding for Artie Shaw's band, and recorded on the RCA label in 1945, Bedford Drive is a medium tempo swing chart, and a big Clarinet feature. Unlike many of Shaw's earlier charts which were extensions of the riff-style of chart, Bedford Drive has an altogether more modern feel about it, with some interesting harmonic structures, particularly in the tutti passages. We have transcribed all of Shaw's solo sections in full, and in parts they are fairly challenging, though your player can improvise from the chords if prefered. The Guitar solo is also transcribed, and cross-cued onto the Piano part in case you have no Guitar in your rhythm section. The reeds are scored CAATB, but we have included an extra Tenor part - a transposition of the Alto 2 part - allowing for the section to be played CATTB. Aside from the Clarinet solo passages this is not a hard chart to play. The brass ranges are moderate and there are no sax doubles.