Arrangements of jazz tunes for multiple guitar ensembles

[rpjazzguitar]

There have been some 4 guitar groups -- Seasons Guitar Quartet and Strings Attached, to name two.

There was a 5 guitar group run iirc by Tony Rizzi.

Anybody know where to get multiple guitar arrangements of jazz tunes?

Or, is there a way to get horn charts all in Concert key? The range of the guitar covers most of what trombone, tenor, alto and trumpet play.

[marcwhy]

Will you be playing with such a group?? Cool!

On Steve Swallow's well-hidden web site, he graciously offers free pdf's of his many compositions. He used to have a link for "arrangements," and when clicked on, it said, "write your own arrangements!"

He probably received too many complaints about that, since it's no longer there ...

[grahambop]

There are some here, no idea what they are like.

Jazz Guitar Ensemble - Charts and arrangements for combo, big band & jazz orchestra

[rpjazzguitar]

There are some here, no idea what they are like.

Jazz Guitar Ensemble - Charts and arrangements for combo, big band & jazz orchestra

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.

To answer Marcwhy's question -- ever since I heard Tony Rizzi's five guitar group, I've had it in the back of my mind to try to organize a session to do this.

[grahambop]

There was also a French group called Guitars Unlimited, they did some great arrangements (presumably overdubbed) on some Django electric recordings - there is a clip of Nuages at the end of this article:

French Guitars Unlimited - JazzWax

[Rob MacKillop]

Mel Bay has a three-part series at different levels:

Jazz Guitar Ensembles Level 3 eBook - Mel Bay Publications, Inc. : Mel Bay

These beginning to advanced jazz guitar ensembles are written for four and five guitars by some of the best guitar ensemble arrangers in the business. Arrangers include, Barry Greene, Dave Frackenpohl, Steve Schenkel, Andrian Ingram, and Chris Buzzelli. Not only are these fine performance pieces for ensembles, they are good material for sight-reading. These graded volumes follow Mel Bay's guitar grading system. Each chart in all three levels offers students the opportunity to improvise with rhythm guitar and, in some cases, background figures.

[Rob MacKillop]

They have a jazz-blues one too: Blues Guitar Ensembles eBook - Bill's Music Shelf : Mel Bay

[rpjazzguitar]

Thanks to a post on this forum, I bought ATTYA from:

Jazz Guitar Ensemble - Charts and arrangements for combo, big band & jazz orchestra

Then, I adapted an original tune .I had written specific voicings in the lead sheet for some important touchpoints (I put them in x'ed note heads as "suggested voicings"). So, I just spread those voicings out among the 4 guitars.

For the notes that didn't already have chord voicings, I thought about Chuck Wayne's idea of harmonizing every melody note as part of a chord melody.

So, I set about doing that. It got me thinking about things I'd never really thought about before. New ideas about harmony (to me, not to Johann S. Bach).

For example, if you have, say, a 5 note pickup into a tonic, how do you harmonize those 5 notes? I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader <g>.

Meanwhile, one of the other guitar players is an experienced arranger and will be bringing some things in.

Anthony Wilson did not respond to an email asking if it would be possible to purchase his Seasons guitar quartet arrangements.

I couldn't find anything about Tony Rizzi's arrangements.