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MUSIC for BIG BAND

Challenging Ensemble Music for Big Bands

AVAILABLE TITLES Below:

August Moon

But Not Like Before

DOUBLE DOUBLE

High & Outside

Planet Hamlet

Stairway to the Stars [Male vocal Feature: Hear Kurt Elling sing it…]

Two Altos [Two altos Feature]

Walk on By [Two Trombone Feature]

What Can it Be?

White Christmas [Female vocal Feature]


 TITLES Available from SheetMusicPlus.com:

ADDs in 2025:

BIG BAND:

Scrapple from the Apple: Parker tune as fast jazz waltz for Big Band

Feel Like Makin' Love: Jazzy pop tune for male vocal and Big Band

Come Rain or Come Shine: Male vocal and Big Band

At Last: Female vocal and Big Band

Taking a Chance on Love: Male Vocal and Big Band

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch: Instrumental Big Band

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch: Male vocal and Big Band

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!: Male vocal and Big Band

(Everybody's Waiting for) The Man with the Bag: Female vocal and Big Band

Little Sunflower: Freddie Hubbard classic for high schools or pro bands

Unit 7: Blues with a bridge, every section gets featured.

TITLE
INSTRUMENTATION
COMMENTS 
PURCHASE

Alto 1

Alto 2

Tenor 1

Tenor 2

Baritone

Trumpet 1

Trumpet 2

Trumpet 3

Trumpet 4

Trombone 1

Trombone 2

Trombone 3

Bass Trombone

Guitar

Piano

Bass

Drums

What Can it Be?


 A very swinging contrafact based on changes similar to This Can't be Love. Shout section just the horns. Lots of room for solos.

PRICE: 
 $55.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


Alto 1

Alto 2

Tenor 1

Tenor 2

Baritone

Trumpet 1

Trumpet 2

Trumpet 3

Trumpet 4

Trombone 1

Trombone 2

Trombone 3

Bass Trombone

Guitar

Piano

Bass

Drums

Planet Hamlet


 Some of the changes for this tune should look familiar. 2026 marks the 100th year of John Coltrane, born in Hamlet, NC. This piece will premiere on an SC Masterworks Ensemble concert  in September honoring both Coltrane and Miles Davis [also born in 1926] with our guest artist, Christian McBride.

PRICE: 
 $55.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


Alto 1

Alto 2

Tenor 1

Tenor 2

Baritone

Trumpet 1

Trumpet 2

Trumpet 3

Trumpet 4

Trombone 1

Trombone 2

Trombone 3

Bass Trombone

Guitar

Piano

Bass

Drums

[Voicings for piano & guitar notated. TAB available on request

DOUBLE DOUBLE
Commissioned by the South Carolina Band Directors Association and composed for the 2026 SCBDA All State Jazz Band and to honor the memory of South Carolina music educator Phil Thompson. Phil was more than a woodwind doubler—he was a double doubler, and was a major influence on many jazz educators in the state.

 

This begins as a ballad recalling the feeling and mood of a piece of mine that Phil performed with the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra. Then the drums introduce a swing tempo and the chart recalls music from our time together as students at the University of North Texas (way last century).

 

There are two solo sections [Repeat them for longer solos and for other improvisers]: 

m.118: Two soloists: chords in Tenor 1 1x-2x, then Trumpet 4 3x-4x. Backgrounds only 2nd and 4th time. 

m.138: Interlude should start soft and build

m.158: More space for solos: chords in TB 1. Backgrounds as marked.

RHYTHM SECTION: I have included voicing suggestions—there are a lot of chords that might not be familiar. Play what is needed for accompanying the soloists. Guitar and piano—if you need any help, contact me: bligon@mozart.sc.edu. [Guitar part with TAB is available on request.]


PDF with complete score and all parts will be sent on receiving payment. 

11x17 score available on request.

 

PRICE: 
 $55.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


Male Vocal

Flute

Alto 1

Alto 2

Tenor

Baritone

Trumpet 1

Trumpet 2

Flugelhorn 1

Flugelhorn 2

 Trombone 1

Trombone 2

Trombone 3

Trombone 4

Guitar

Piano

Bass

Drums

Stairway to the Stars


Composers: Mitchell Parish, Matt Malneck, Frank Signorelli
Arranger: Bert Ligon [BertLigonMusic.com]

Lovely, Lovely, Stairway to the Stars.

Before there was Stairway to Heaven there was Stairway to the Stars. You need this lush ballad to feature your male vocalist in the key of Bb.

Jazz Big Band 5444 (Male Vocal; Flute, 2 Alto Saxophones; Tenor Saxophone; Baritone Saxophone; 2 Trumpets, 2 Flugelhorns; 3 Trombones; Bass Trombone; Guitar; Piano; Bass; Drums) – Advanced Intermediate Arranged by Bert Ligon for and Performed by South Carolina Masterworks Ensemble with Kurt Elling. 

This was arranged for the SC Masterworks Jazz Ensemble performance with Kurt Elling. Recording is from that concert in June, 2023. Included is the optional verse with piano and voice. Featured Kurt singing, short instrumental ensemble sections, piano solos. 
PRICE: 
$55.00

Available from this link: 


Any Questions, please contact me.

Lovely, Lovely: Stairway to the Stars as performed by SC Masterworks Ensemble 
with Kurt Elling:.

White Christmas
Female Vocal
Alto 1
Alto 2 
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bari
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4 
 Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Trombone 4
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums
White Christmas


Composers: Irving Berlin
Arranger: Bert Ligon [BertLigonMusic.com]

Get your Christmas shopping started with this arrangement for Alto voice and Big Band. One of the best selling songs of all-time. Irving Berlin, according to many stories, wrote this at the La Quinta Hotel. This arrangement embraces that idea and sets this with a Cuban bolero/cha-cha feel. Berlin said of this tune, "Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote."

Jazz Big Band 5444 (Vocal [key of Bb]; 2 Alto Saxophones; 2 Tenor Saxophones; Baritone Saxophone; 4 Trumpets; 3 Trombones; Bass Trombone; Guitar; Piano; Bass; Drums). Arranged by Bert Ligon for and Performed by South Carolina Masterworks Ensemble.
PRICE: 
$60.00

Available from this link : 


Any Questions, please contact me.


Walk on By
Alto 1
Alto 2 
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bari
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4 
 Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Trombone 4
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums
Walk on By 

PURCHASE

Composers: Burt Bacharach, Hal David
Arranger: Bert Ligon [BertLigonMusic.com]

Jazz Big Band Trombone Feature 5444 

Burt Bacharach, American music legend, passed away in February, 2023. 

I arranged this swinging chart in March, 2023 for Michael Dease & Michael Wilkinson to perform at the USC Jazz Festival with the Left Bank Big Band under the direction of Matt White. It’s a fun, quick and easy to put together feature for two trombones. [solo]
PRICE: 
$50.00

Available from this link: 


Any Questions, please contact me.

Check out Michael Dease & Michael Wilkinson
with the USC Left Bank Big Band [March 21, 2023]


HIGH & OUTSIDE
Alto 1
Alto 2 
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bari
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Trombone 4
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums
High & Outside is a challenging tune, brisk minor blues.

Solos for the trumpet and guitar [pedals encouraged!] 
High & Outside: kind of descriptive of the music —it gets a bit high, and is [harmonically] a bit "outside," has some challenging lines, a few Stravinsky chords, and is, at its heart a C minor blues.

I was standing in the left-hand batter's box and took a pitch the umpire called "High & Outside." I had to step out of the box because I was thinking, "That'd make a great title..." 
[I probably ended up grounding out to 2nd base, which is not a great title.]

Check out the great live performance by the USC Left Bank Big Band [March 21, 2023]
PRICE: 
 $55.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


BUT NOT LIKE BEFORE
Alto 1
Alto 2 
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bari
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Trombone 4
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums
But Not Like Before is a contrafact* over a familiar harmonic framework featuring a challenging bop-like line in the Tenor 1 and Guitar parts. The bop-line began its life as an etude for one of my students in Improvisation classes and is for sale on the Etudes page as part of 5b

*Contrafact: A piece composed over the framework of another tune. Oleo & Anthropology are contrafacts over the chord changes to Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. Contract is not to be confused with an “alternative fact”…
PRICE: 
$40.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


AUGUST MOON
Alto 1
Alto 2
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bari
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4
[Optional Flugelhorn]
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Trombone 4
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums
AUGUST MOON is a cool contrafact* over a familiar harmonic framework featuring a smaller combo sound within the big band. This harmonic setting is for a day sipping wine and smelling roses. There is an optional 5th trumpet part for Flugelhorn to lead the combo.

The piece opens with a written out or optionally improvised piano solo over the form. The ensemble states the main theme in the key of F major. The bigger ensemble takes over as the piece modulates up to Ab major. The piece settles back down to the key of F major for the solos. This can easily be opened up for anyone over the comfortable and familiar chord changes. The are backgrounds which can be cued or played the 2nd time or last time for a soloist. The big ensemble returns to the key of Ab and takes it to the end.

*Contrafact: A piece composed over the framework of another tune. Oleo & Anthropology are contrafacts over the chord changes to Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. Contract is not to be confused with an “alternative fact”…


PRICE: 
$40.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.


TWO ALTOS
5444
TWO ALTOS is a blues in F that features: two altos. 

PRICE: 
$40.00


Once your credit card or PayPal payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing attached PDF file(s) of the music ordered sent to the email address you include in your order. You must specify a valid email address in your order to receive the PDF file(s). Under normal circumstances, PDFs are emailed the same day payment is received. 

Any Questions, please contact me.