Product Description
Running time: approximately 5:30
Happy Talk was composed by Rogers & Hammerstein for their 1949 Broadway musical South Pacific, where it was sung by the character Bloody Mary. It has since been recorded numerous times by such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, and Nancy Wilson with Cannonball Adderley. It is this last version from 1961 that provided the inspiration for this arrangement.
This arrangement is what is sometimes termed a "flag waver" or "barn burner". The tempo is bright (quarter=200-220 BPM) and it opens with a long introduction in a Latin style featuring the brass and saxes exchanging phrases over a bass ostinato. Alto saxes and trumpets play the melody in unison. A solo section is designed for flexibility with chord changes provided in several parts. Solos can easily be opened up to feature as many jazz players as you like. Then a smokin ensemble section takes the chart to its climax.
Instrumentation is the standard big band: five saxes (a,a,t,t,b), five trumpets, four trombones, guitar, piano, bass & drums.
Both full score and parts are included.
Brass parts get pretty high. At one point the lead trumpet goes up to a high Ab. If your trumpets are not quite up to that, Ive provided an alternate voicing a fourth lower for that section.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.