Count Basie

Magic

Magic is an absolute cracker of a swing chart, written by Frank Wess. It is essentially a blues, but a blues with a lot of bite, featuring solo solo space for Piano, Tenor and Trombone. Aside from the opening 4 measures, the solos are to be improvised. The Piano opens the chart, saxes take the unison melody line first time, the brass layer over the top with punchy backings second time. Then it's a Trombone solo backed by saxes 2nd time, followed by the Tenor solo (supported by the brass) and then onto the big shout chorus to finish. At the close of the shout the Trumpets are written very high. We've written the original notes as cues and have adjusted the range of the Trumpet figures down a third, so that the lead now only has to reach high Eb, though if your lead can hit the high G have the section play the cues. The chart is big and rich and classic Basie. There are no sax doubles.