Tom McIntosh

  • New composers and new music all summer long

    We hope you're enjoying the new website. With our reboot behind us, we're back to focusing on what matters the most: the music. To start the summer off right, we're releasing new music every week. This week, we're proud to welcome composers Adriano Acea, Jon Gordon and John Webber to the site. We also have lead sheets and transcriptions of trumpeter Art Farmer, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and drummers Bill Stewart and Carl Allen to round out a selection that has something for everyone. Don't forget to check out our homepage for new videos and other featured content -- click the dots under the slider to see all the new material, updated weekly.

    Here's what's new on jazzleadsheets.com:

    Art Farmer - Flashback
    Get inside this medium swing, featuring Art Farmer's solo transcription, Geoff Keezer's piano solo and melody comping transcriptions, and Carl Allen's drum comping transcription

    Tom McIntosh - With Malice Toward None
    Appealing, adaptable with a touch of soul. Available in two different keys.

    Jon Gordon - Shape Up
    Intricate, contemporary and rhythmically complex. With Bill Stewart's drum comping and solo transcriptions and a video of Bill.

    Jon Webber - So Young
    An introspective and quirky ballad with second parts.

    Adriano Acea - Little Leona
    An enticing Latin/swing hybrid.

    Enjoy the music,
    Don Sickler and the jazzleadsheets.com team

  • Dexter Gordon, Tom McIntosh and more

    Clubhouse (Dexter Gordon)
    This is another Dexter Gordon gem, featuring horns and drums in the melody. Read about my personal experience with legendary drummer Billy Higgins, who was on the original recording, in the notes. Dexter’s transcribed tenor sax solo is also available in both B-flat and C concert editions. My transcriptions document the creative “fingerprints” of the artist: the notes he plays as well as the articulations, which account for so much of Dexter’s magic as a soloist.

    Cup Bearers (Tom McIntosh)
    This is an important and classic jazz composition by master composer/arranger/trombonist Tom McIntosh. It’s one of those compositions with great “changes” that can lead you into new ways of thinking and playing.
    Our lead sheet comes from the first recording in 1962 by James Moody. Soon after, in the same year, trumpeter Blue Mitchell recorded his version, and in the following year Dizzy Gillespie recorded it. “Cup Bearers” became a required composition on the hip jazz scene. This year, 2012, is the 50th anniversary of the first recording, and it’s still hip!
    A couple of years ago, when I brought it to the attention of Jon Irabagon, the winner of the last Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, he was quick to record it.

    Crazy (Elmo Hope)
    One more challenge from Elmo Hope! I’m thrilled to be able to bring more and more of Elmo’s great music to jazzleadsheets.com. This one will challenge anyone, but it’s well worth the musical effort.
    Take a listen to Bertha Hope, Elmo’s widow, as she talks about Elmo with saxophonist/composer Jerry Dodgion and bassist/composer Putter Smith:

    Outa Sight (Jack Wilson)
    A great example of “It doesn’t have to be hard to be good.” I’m always looking for material recorded by jazz artists that can also be recommended to inexperienced performers. This is a good one: simple, not a rangy melody, not a lot of solo changes to deal with. The solo section has some rhythm section hits that will help you add variety to your own solo.

    Bob T’s Blues (Julian Priester)
    Another nice blues to add to your repertoire.

    --Don Sickler

  • New titles January 6, 2011

    For our first composition by tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, we’re bringing you Sweet Sucker, which he wrote for himself and trombonist Bennie Green to play on Bennie’s “Glidin’ Along” recording for Jazzland in 1961. Vocalist and lyricist Judy Niemack loved the instrumental, and wrote and recorded a lyric version which we’re also making available (Dancin’ Like We Did Before), as well as an accompaniment-only mp3 of that track.
    Sweet Sucker - Johnny Griffin
    Dancin’ Like We Did Before - Johnny Griffin & Judy Niemack

    News For Lulu - Sonny Clark
    This is from Sonny Clark’s sextet recording “Sonny’s Crib” which featured the front line of Donald Byrd (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax) and Curtis Fuller (trombone). The horns break into harmony in only a few places, so our lead sheet editions show just the melody, except for C treble clef. As usual, all the parts are indicated in the C treble clef lead sheet. If you would like to play this as originally recorded with your own sextet, the original Tenor Sax (2nd part) and Trombone (3rd part) are also available as well as the original detailed Bass part.

    Mox-Nix - Art Farmer [2 Art Farmer solos only]
    November Afternoon - Tom McIntosh [Art Farmer solo only]
    We want to present three more wonderful Art Farmer solos. The first solo on Mox-Nix is from a quintet recording, and is the earliest of the three solos. The next Mox-Nix solo and Art’s November Afternoon solo come from two different incarnations of The Jazztet. Most Jazztet arrangements are quite involved, and therefore not suitable to be represented by a lead sheet. They really require a full score and individual parts. Thanks to our new relationship with ejazzlines.com, these two Jazztet arrangements are available there, and we have Art’s solos here, at jazzleadsheets.com.

    The Jazztet arrived on the scene with their first album (“Meet The Jazztet”), recorded in February, 1960. This Art Farmer-Benny Golson sextet also featured Curtis Fuller on trombone, who told me that he actually gave the group its name. The rhythm section also featured a newcomer, pianist McCoy Tyner (on his second recording date). The composer and arranger of November Afternoon was also The Jazztet’s trombonist when “The Jazztet At Birdhouse” (Argo LP 688) was recorded, with Cedar Walton on piano.

    Try to celebrate the New Year with music. Jazz music.
    Don Sickler

  • Two new composers this week

    Pianist Kenny Drew, Jr., an inventive virtuoso with a modern sound and style, joins the site with Third Phase, and trumpeter Bill Hardman, one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 1950s and ’60s, offers a groovy Latin piece, Jo-B.

    Two more great Ronnie Mathews titles from his Doin’ The Thang recording, Orient and Let's Get Down.

    Another addition in our two versions series (like Filide last week): Capers, a Tom McIntosh composition with two versions, recorded by two different trumpet players in the same year. Bill Hardman with Sonny Red on alto sax recorded it first, then Blue Mitchell with Junior Cook on tenor.

4 Items

  1. 1