SKU: A0.808659

Prerecorded wax cylinders were first marketed in 1889. Ten years later, when this Howard and Emerson tune was published, those cylinders were referred to as records, and Arthur Collins made the first recording of Hello! Ma Baby. The lyrics tell the tale of a guy who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone. This was one of the first songs to deal with the telephone (that medium, too, being still pretty new). The chorus was kicked back into the spotlight in 1955 when a certain movie frog sang and danced his way across a Warner Brothers cartoon background. The current version used the 1899 sheet music as its source, but is a completely original arrangement that enhances the ragtime feel of the music. This is an infectious piece that is fun to play and a toe-tapper for the audience.

Completed in 2016, this arrangement’s performance time runs about 3 minutes, 20 seconds. Contact the arranger, Les Smith, at lessmith@ufl.edu. If you like this novelty number, be sure to check out Sweetwater's Funeral March of a Marionette, Goodbye! So Long! I'm Headin' Home! Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey, Somebody Stole My Gal and Teddy Bears' Picnic. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the search box.  (Also, purchase of this piece entitles you to your choice of another of his arrangements at no charge; send a copy of your purchase receipt directly to him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.)

SKU: A0.808687

    Brahms completed Six Pieces for Piano in 1893, just four years before his death. It was the second from last work he would write for solo piano, an introspective composition that he dedicated to Clara Schumann. To four of the six pieces he attached the label Intermezzo. Although the term originally defined a composition that was inserted between two other pieces-say, the movements of a suite or the acts of an opera-Brahms wrote them as independent works. And of these, the most popular is this, the Intermezzo in A major, andante teneramente. As described on the website Favorite Classic Composers, It's a sweetly melancholy piece, with a strong tinge of melancholy.
    Except for a few items, this arrangement is not technically difficult. For the most part, Trumpet 1 plays the melody. Some of the notes are relatively high, the highest being C6 (high D for B-flat trumpet); there are several of those. Trumpet 2 has one brief A5 (high B). Trombone carries the heavy load; it has lots of oodle-oodles in the form of up-and-down eighth notes and triplet figures plus one F2. In the tuba part the range of notes is E1 to F3 and it contains a number of octave jumps. This is a beautiful piece, but it does require that each musician listen to the other four while playing.
    This arrangement was completed in 2018, and performance time runs about 4 minutes, 55 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, would be very interested in your comments; contact him at lessmith@ufl.edu or leave a review on the SheetMusicPlus website. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the search box. (Also, purchase of this piece entitles you to your choice of another of his arrangements at no charge; send a copy of your purchase receipt directly to him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.)

SKU: A0.808684

Irving Berlin’s composition Alexander’s Ragtime Band was not only his first hit, it was also one of the most popular songs ever. It first gained widespread recognition when Emma Carus sang it in Chicago in 1911, and then it really took off when Al Jolson performed it in New York.
 It’s no wonder the popularity of Alexander’s has been so long-lived. Both words and music are absolutely bouncy and upbeat. The lyrics proclaim the Ragtime Band to be the best . . . in the land and invite the listener to come on and hear the group, even to meet its leader! The tune is energetic and lively, a salute to the toe-tapping Dixieland style that even then was developing in New Orleans.
 This arrangement takes the natural exuberance of the melody and raises it a couple of notches. Wide open and sprightly, it features the trombone, but also gives each of the other parts a chance to shine, too. In addition to several iterations of the well-known chorus, it also includes the seldom-heard verse and even throws in a few true ragtime licks, quotes from Scott Joplin and Percy Wenrich. The tempo is a bouncy, cut-time 76, with some fairly tricky rhythms and one ritardando near the middle. Trumpet 1 plays a couple of notes above its staff, one A and one B. Trombone plays F above its staff several times and one brief G. Tuba’s lowest note is F below the staff.
 This arrangement was completed in 2018, and performance time runs about 4 minutes, 33 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, would be very interested in your comments; contact him at lessmith@ufl.edu or leave a review on the SheetMusicPlus website. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus or Sheet Music Direct search box. (Also, purchase of this piece entitles you to your choice of another of his arrangements at no charge; send a copy of your purchase receipt directly to him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.)

SKU: A0.808676

    Marvin Hamlisch’s score for the 1973 movie The Sting revived interest in ragtime music. Ragtime, of course, is music, often in march-time, that features syncopation, a ragged beat. It originated in African-American districts of large cities and first flourished during the period, 1895-1918. One of the most successful ragtime composers was Scott Joplin, known as the King of Ragtime. Hamlisch used several Joplin compositions as background music for the George Roy Hill-directed film, and one of those was this beautiful and contemplative 1909 composition, Solace: A Mexican Serenade.  
   In All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (Woodstra et al., ed., CMP Books: 2005), Blair Johnston called Solace a musical hybrid neither authentically Mexican nor authentic ragtime. It is, instead, a habanera, but also a very lovely piece of Americana.
    This brass quintet arrangement of Solace was adapted from the Joplin piano score. Like the score, this arrangement is in 2/4 time and contains a lot of 16th notes. Joplin’s tempo instruction, however, is Very slow march time, and the metronome marking suggests 96 eighth notes a minute, so in reality the actual tempo is an andante 4/8. Trumpet 1 has some B-above-the-staff notes in the last section, Trumpet 2 has a few interesting rhythmic figures in section B; Trombone has 3 or 4 F-above-the-staff notes, and Tuba plays a couple of top-of-the-staff A’s in section D and at the very end. Plus, of course, the piece is syncopated.
    Completed in 2017, this arrangement runs about 6 minutes, 10 seconds. Contact the arranger, Les Smith, at lessmith@ufl.edu; he would be delighted to hear from you. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.

SKU: A0.808694

    British composer Alexander Robert Reinagle wrote this melody about 1836 and named it after the church where he was organist, Oxford's St. Peter-in-the-East. First published as a musical setting for Psalm 118, it was adapted to John Newton’s How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds in 1861 and then to the hymn by John Oxenham (William A. Dunkerley), In Christ There Is No East or West, in the early 20th Century.
    While some sources specify that the St. Peter melody should be played without any festive fanfares, this brass quintet version does contain a few ceremonial flourishes.
    Most players will have little or no difficulty with this piece. The andante moderato tempo should be interpreted as somewhere in the vicinity of quarter note = 92. Most of the rhythm patterns involve quarter and eighth notes, with a few 16th-note passages scattered throughout. Trumpet 1’s highest note is its high A; tuba’s lowest is G below the staff. Otherwise, the music remains well within the normal playing range of all instruments.
    This arrangement was completed in 2019, and performance time runs about 4 minutes, 13 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.

SKU: A0.883781

After the quiet years from the Jackson 5 he meets Quincy Jones and becomes reborn via Off The Wall The iconic disco club number.

SKU: A0.750874

The Anzac Marseillaise is a battle song written A. J. Smith around 1915-16 dedicated to the ANZAC Heroes. Although not strictly in typical march format, it could be used as such or be used as an accompaniment to the vocal using the original words - A vocal Lead Sheet and optional piano part are included in the PDF.
I was approached by Ron Bergman (ex-RAN Navy Reserve Band) to arrange this piece from an old copy of the original piano music he had for the use of the band at its reunion and get-together in February 2011.
This is the Brass Band version. If you would like it in March Card sized format as a PDF, just email your request. Listen to the MP3 as well!

 Grade = 3.5  Duration 3:40 mins.  .