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'Big Tune' (Manuscript)

roberts_matt2_100 Trumpeter and Composer Matt Roberts was born in Darlington in 1986. His love of jazz was sparked by playing with the Durham County Youth Big Band, under the direction of trumpeter Shaune Eland and this encouraged him to undertake the BA Jazz Studies course at Leeds College of Music. At Leeds, he studied with a fabulous team of mentors including Mark Donlon, Neil Yates, Barak Schmool, Gerard Presencer, Matthew Bourne and Graham Hearn. Matt graduated in the summer of 2008 and was awarded the 'Fred and Ethel Tolson Memorial Prize for Brass', the 'Friends Prize for Composition', the 'James F Cardno Prize for academic achievement in higher education' and the University of Leeds 'Armes Prize'. He has performed with Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler, Sir John Dankworth, Mike Gibbs, Abram Wilson, Denys Baptiste, the Conservatoires UK Big Band, and the 'Voice of the North' jazz orchestra and continues to study composition under the direction of London based composer Issie Barratt. Matt is planning to continue his studies with a postgraduate course in composition. 'Big Tune' is a product from this prolific, young composer and was the winning composition in the small band category of the Worshipful Company of Musicians/Jazzorg 2009 Prize Competition.

Matt shares a joke with Frank Griffith at the Ronnie's presentation and Frank said of his composition:
'The 4 horns, 3 percussion lineup provides an effective and powerful combination for this kind of piece. It has a great rhythmic groove, notably established by the percussion and rhythm section writing in particular, and an excellent bass line which is inventive without being too clever. The Fminor/Abminor section is brilliant and goes a long way to setting the overall mood for the piece. The horn melody at letter D, which moves slightly as if it needs to fit over the existing harmonic and rhythmic material, projects nicely, nevertheless.
There's an exciting solo section with an successful harmonic buildup in an effective tension-release exercise. Also, there is a good balance between melodic and harmonic material with rhythmic vamps. This piece combines powerful rhythmic small group oriented techniques with a good sense of structure and drama, allowing the listener to be satisfied in both areas.'

Downloads
Three sample pages of Matt's composition (from the tenor, trumpet and trombone parts) are displayed on your monitor and you can get a full pdf download of all the parts and a 'control score' by clicking [this link]
A download of the full MP3 audio version of the composition, played by the Trinity College Jazz Ensemble, is also available by clicking [this link]

Band Personnel:
Leader: Malcolm Earle-Smith (tbn)
Reeds/Flutes: Lucas Dodd (alto), Max Johnson (alto), Ben Mallinder (tenor), William Scott (tenor), Simon Marsh (baritone),
Trumpets/Flugels: Conor Cantrell, Jack Coward, Jeffrey Brown, Jonathan Murray
Trombones: Adam Tyas, Eleanor Smith, Matthew Benson
Tuba: Christopher Dennis
Rhythm and Percussion: Christopher Eldred (pno), Matthew Redman (gtr), Fergus Ireland (bass), David Elliott (drms)
Harp:Tamara Young

'Big Tune'

The Trinity College Jazz Ensemble perform 'Big Tune' at a concert at Ronnie Scott's club in January 2009, watched by an attentive Sir John Dankworth next to the pianist.

Click on the player buttons to hear a sample of this piece. Remember, you can download the full track and the full notation!

Downloading of copies of the music manuscript are subject to the Jazzorg Licence 2, described under the 'Copyright' menu tab. You can discuss or comment on this piece in the forums.

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