Sheet Music AQA A-level performance on tenor - score suggestions

[pentastic]

So my daughter is a tenor jazz player and needs to find 3-4 pieces to perform for her A-level music exam in the Spring.
The pieces get recorded individually, so she can have multiple attempts and submit the best ones.

She is looking for suggestions on what to play, ideally jazz, ideally with a backing track or maybe with a piano part.
The main issue is that, in order to comply with AQA rules, she must follow an exact score that she will be assessed against (I know!)
She is far more used to improvising solo sections when she has done exams in the past, but apparently this won't cut the mustard.

Any suggestions about where we can find some good scores/backing music for tracks like this? Something with a bit of pizazz, but as I say, fully scored.
They need to be equivalent to grade7/8 standard which shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jazzdoh]

Have look at the associated board jazz grade 6-8, it might give you ideas.

Jazz Saxophone

www.abrsm.org

 

[Tenor Viol]

Also look at LCM (London College of Music) an alternative to ABRSM.

https://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/our-exams/jazz/jazz-saxophone/

 

[pentastic]

Thanks for suggestions.
We've found that lots of the exam pieces above are very basic, but are elevated to grade 8 by having sections for improv solos (obviously these sections are not scored so she is unable to use them 😭).

Someone has suggested Tomplay so might give that a go.

 

[Digger2054]

Dean Masser has two books of 'swinging' duets, with MP3 accompaniment to play along with.

Quite good fun to play, Jazzy tunes, fully scored... not really got a backing track though.

Example from his youtube below:

View: https://youtu.be/llEYsOcWwSA?si=DQ808H9da_RgML0M

 

[jazzdoh]

It seems weird that there wouldn't be any improvising for the exam but maybe then she could do a jazz transcription of a standard, you would have to find a backing track that matched.

Saxsolos | Home - Saxsolos are good for the transcription.

 

[Nick Wyver]

Bob Mintzer’s 14 Jazz and Funk Etudes might be worth a look. Probably about the right standard and has a cd with accompaniments.

 

[turf3]

So my daughter is a tenor jazz player and needs to find 3-4 pieces to perform for her A-level music exam in the Spring.
The pieces get recorded individually, so she can have multiple attempts and submit the best ones.

She is looking for suggestions on what to play, ideally jazz, ideally with a backing track or maybe with a piano part.
The main issue is that, in order to comply with AQA rules, she must follow an exact score that she will be assessed against (I know!)
She is far more used to improvising solo sections when she has done exams in the past, but apparently this won't cut the mustard.

Any suggestions about where we can find some good scores/backing music for tracks like this? Something with a bit of pizazz, but as I say, fully scored.
They need to be equivalent to grade7/8 standard which shouldn't be a problem.

Well, I don't know what "A level" or "Grade 7/8" mean, but I'd say to look at famous recordings of tenor saxophone with fairly spare accompaniment; if the recordings are famous enough, there'll be transcriptions of the solo section. And of course not too long. Two that come immediately to mind are the famous 1939 Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins - guarantee you can find complete transcriptions - or "Freedom Jazz Dance" by Eddie Harris - might be too long and too harmonically static.

 

[LostCircuits]

Larry McKenna has a ton of transcribed solos:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=larry+mckenna+transcription

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOm_t2mdwRo

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ChPB0_aYM

 

[turf3]

If you can find a guitar player and bass player to back her up on this

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMwgXpTXRr4&list=RDUMwgXpTXRr4&start_radio=1


I predict it will blow away the judges.

 

[turf3]

Dean Masser has two books of 'swinging' duets, with MP3 accompaniment to play along with.

Quite good fun to play, Jazzy tunes, fully scored... not really got a backing track though.

Example from his youtube below:

View: https://youtu.be/llEYsOcWwSA?si=DQ808H9da_RgML0M

That'd work too; find a professional saxophonist to play the other part and go in there and play the duet. If she's going to do tenor, get a bari player. (I think it'd sound great with bari and tenor - the video states that parts are available for alto-tenor, so just make that bari-tenor.)

Another thought would be to find two tenor players and a bari player and go in and play "Four Brothers" - the head, the written solos, and the head out - not all the rest of the chart.

I suspect I'm thinking outside the "judged recital rigidly designed music exam" box, but if the subject matter is JAZZ, and yet they don't allow any improvisation, you might at least have it sound like jazz. I bet it's been 30 years since someone brought in a Coleman Hawkins transcription - if ever.

 

[pentastic]

Bob Mintzer’s 14 Jazz and Funk Etudes might be worth a look. Probably about the right standard and has a cd with accompaniments.

Brilliant thanks

 

[LostCircuits]

Brilliant thanks

I'd recommend to go straight to "Slowly" (track 13 IIRC)

 

[EwingsSchult]

Check out books of jazz etudes with play-along CDs or downloads - they’re fully written out, no improv needed, and perfect for grade 7-8 level

 

[turf3]

So, OP, more than a year later how did the "jazz exam with no improvisation allowed" go? (My mind almost seized up even TYPING that phrase.)

 

[EwingsSchult]

I often check GCSE English Language for clear exam materials, so I get the need for fully notated pieces. Bob Mintzer's etudes and Dean Masser's duets come with backing tracks and avoid improvisation
For classical style, look at ABRSM grade 7-8 sax lists
Larry McKenna's transcribed solos are worth a look

 

[turf3]

Well, there are three things here.

1) Reading and playing; this can be done using any of thousands of classical and light classical etudes and the like.

2) Playing section parts in a jazz band; I'd suggest just reading big band parts from a variety of styles and evaluating whether the player is playing accurately and stylistically correctly.

3) Playing actual jazz, which is by definition improvisation.

Demonstrating that you can read and perform transcribed solos is antithetical to the whole concept of African American improvised music. Transcribed solos are a fine learning tool; I use them myself; but that's not jazz performance.