People Time

Jazz Big Band Arrangement. Full Score, Flute (on Alto Sax 1), Alto Saxophone, 2 Tenor Saxophones, Baritone Saxophone, 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones, Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drums

In 1987, Benny Carter was invited to give a concert of his music with the American Jazz Orchestra. The concert would be a career retrospective: classic music he wrote in the 1930s and ‘40s, compositions from the ‘60s, including themes he'd written for motion pictures, and a suite composed specifically for the concert. This suite, Central City Sketches, and the resulting studio-recorded CD released by Musicmasters, were praised by critics who were thrilled that Carter was still creating beautiful, swinging music at the age of eighty. Jeffrey Sultanof was present at that concert, and can attest that the audience went wild when they heard this new music that often recalled Kansas City and the swing era. The sources for these publications are the original parts, which were heavily marked up with changes and corrections that were made prior to the premiere. In one case (People Time) a score that was engraved by Phil Woods was consulted.Movement 3 - People Time: People Time is movement three of the suite (It is often called simply People, perhaps changed to avoid it being confused with the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill standard of the same name.) This gorgeous ballad features a flute solo at the beginning, and then a trumpet solo backed by the ensemble. Like most of Carter's music, it was written for professionals but can be played by many middle-school bands. This is a straight-forward flute and trumpet feature ballad that is played slowly. The opening section features a flute solo accompanied by piano. The pianist should pay close attention to the flute and provide adequate, but not intrusive, support. The flute part was written on reed 1. We have included an alternate reed 1 part (on alto saxophone) and may be used in the event that a flautist is not available. If you wish to use this alternate part this arrangement simply becomes an alto saxophone feature (instead of flute).