Jazz Waltz – The Waltz of the Sackbuts
This excerpt is marked to be played as a Gentle Jazz Waltz. Since there is no specific tempo listed, I experimented with a few and found that I like it around quarter note = 160. That makes the breathing and feel seem to work well for me. As with all of the jazz etudes, style is more important than tempo. If you need to play a little bit faster to make the phrases or a bit slower to give yourself chances to breathe, you should be fine as long as the feel is good.
Pay close attention to the articulations that I use in the recording. You will notice that I add several slurs rather than tonguing the whole example. In swing styles the default articulation and note length is to play quarter notes short unless they are marked otherwise and to play eighth notes long unless they are the last eighth note before a rest.
I also use several alternate positions in order to keep my arm more relaxed and to create some natural slurs. Natural slurs are ‘real’ slurs like what a trumpet or sax player can do, rather than having to cheat by articulating softly in order to try to sound like we are slurring on a trombone. Note the high Bb in 3rd position in measure 7.
Also pay close attention to the rhythms in measure 1 and measure 15. Measure 1 is two 16th notes and an 8th and measure 15 is a triplet. These will often sound very similar, so I have tried to pay close attention to make sure that they are honest and sound different.
Kick the Can
This excerpt is marked to be played Fast Swing. Since there is no specific tempo listed, I experimented with a few and found that I like it around quarter note = 200. That makes the breathing and feel seem to work well for me. As with all of the jazz etudes, style is more important than tempo. If you need to play a little bit faster to make the phrases or a bit slower to give yourself chances to breathe, you should be fine as long as the feel is good.
To finish off the example I use a bit of terminal vibrato on the last note. This is something that you hear a lot with lead trombone players and puts just a bit of extra zing to the tone on the cut off. If you choose to try this, be careful not to go too fast or too wide or you can lose the pitch center.
Here is a great example of Matt Niess, lead trombonist with the Army Blues playing his arrangement of Cheek to Cheek for you to listen to to hear use of different vibrato styles on the trombone. You can hear him using both slide and jaw vibrato. Pay close attention to his use of terminal vibrato at the ends of phrases in the introduction and during the melody.
As with the earlier example, the swing feel is relaxed and not labored, with smooth articulations. Notice that the swing eighth note feel in the two etudes is different. As you play faster, the rhythms start to even out and get closer to even eighth notes, while keeping the swing emphasis to each note. Check out the example below for a demonstration.
Good luck on your auditions!