Exploring Jazz Arranging – Revised Edition

After his work with Bill Evans, renowned bassist, composer, and arranger Chuck Israels spent almost a decade as Director & Arranger for the National Jazz Ensemble. Drawing from this experience, Exploring Jazz Arranging takes a refreshing approach to the study of arranging and orchestration.

All of the fundamentals found in books on arranging are included, but there is so much more!

Israels begins by stressing the primary importance of rhythm above chord voicing and the essential relationship between the outer lines, melody, and bass line. He goes on to discuss chord voicing and voice leading, common musical forms, then how to recognize recurring patterns in chord progressions.

Unlike other texts on arranging, Israels covers arranging for solo, 2, 3, 4, and 5 voices. He describes how to write for the individual instruments in the rhythm section, and gradually gets into writing for combos and smaller ensembles. Only the final third of the book discusses writing specifically for big band.

Spiral bound, 187 pages, Table of Contents. Includes a free download with audio for each musical example.