TN All-State High School Jazz Tenor Trombone Videos and Tips Fall 2018

Gentle Slow Swing – Staying Cool

This excerpt is marked to be played as a Gentle Slow Swing in the style of Neal Hefti’s Cute.  The Count Basie band recorded that at a variety of tempos, so the actual tempo can be a bit flexible, but I went on the slower side in order to differentiate it more from the faster example.  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 Bb in 5th position in measure 8.

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 from a few years ago for a demonstration of swing feel on Kick the Can.


Samba of the Sun

This excerpt is marked to be played Fast Latin.  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.

As with the earlier example, I use several alternate positions for clarity and a smooth slide.  Try to see how you can incorporate alternates to minimize your slide movements and smooth out the legato figures.

Since this is in cut time, you have to remember that the Fast in Fast Latin refers to the fastest notes, not the beat itself.  If this was mostly quarter notes, then I would play it at a faster basic tempo, but since there are triplets and lots of eighth notes, a slightly slower metronome marking works fine.

For those of you who want the extra challenge of really burning on it, check out this additional take.

Good luck on your auditions!


For anyone who wants the play-a-long to Samba of the Sun at q=160, I have posted it below.  With all of the various metronomes that people carry around on their phones, you probably already have something that you can use to give yourself a good drum feel to play with where you can vary the tempos to fit your ability to play the example.