The Best of Belwin Jazz: First Year Charts for Jazz Ensemble is a collection of twelve outstanding jazz ensemble arrangements for the young player. Each chart is written by experienced educational arrangers and composers in various styles and tempos: swing, Latin, ballad, waltz, holiday and pop.This collection is written for full instrumentation - five saxophones, three trumpets, three trombones, and four rhythm - but is designed to sound full and complete with reduced instrumentation of three saxes, two trumpets, one trombone and three rhythm. Optional parts are available for flute, clarinet, tuba, horn in F, and baritone T.C.The rhythm section parts offer suggestions for rhythms, piano voicings, and guitar chord frames. All solos are written out in improvised sections. The conductor's book includes full-length CD recordings of all titles.Titles include:Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home, Birth of the Blues, Embraceable You, First Time Around, Gospel, Hot Chocolate, Jazzmin Tea, Jingle Bell Rock, Poco Loco, Splanky, Sunday Morning, TMI

Soloist: Humberto Araújo, tenor saxophone
Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception is the new exciting series of play-along books by award-winning Brazilian flutist and composer Fernando Brandão and features fifteen original tunes in various Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles. This edition clearly aims at being more than a simple play-along collection. For each of the tunes a thorough analysis and additional exercises are given. An extensive introduction into the various styles and rhythms of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music makes these books even more valuable. The rhythm section and soloists are among the most prestigious musicians in contemporary Brazilian music.

Rhythm Section: Leandro Braga - piano, Adriano Giffoni - bass, Xande Figueiredo - drums, Zero - percussion.

A must have for all pianists seeking a creative approach to developing left and right hand coordination. The exercises and solos (based on the chord changes to well-known standards) are rhythmic, colorful, and fun to play. The chapters cover six specific areas of left hand development and left/right hand integration, with practical application from standard jazz tunes in the form of musical solo piano pieces. This book will definitely be an essential part of your practice routine. Besides improving your hand coordination, it will challenge you to think differently about it. All of the concepts are easily applicable to the real world. Highly endorsed! Pianist Emiko Hayashi has written a very comprehensive, challenging yet very accessible method book. With exercises designed for left hand alone and exercises designed to develop interplay between the hands, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I\'ve already started practicing! - Kenny Barron In Etudes for Jazz Piano Emiko Hayashi illuminates a challenge that faces scores of jazz pianists at all levels; that of integrating the left hand in improvisation in a meaningful way, not only as an accompanist, but as an integral part of the whole. By taking various jazz standards and creating etudes specifically for the left hand as well as for developing coordination and the conversational aspects between the left and right hands, Ms. Hayashi illustrates many possibilities for expanding one�s technical and expressive range. I would think this set of etudes would be extremely useful to jazz pianists at any stage of development since the obvious outcome of the study will improve one�s ability to play melodically and expressively throughout the keyboard, without regard to the traditional roles of the left and right hands. - Todd Coolman It is understood that all musicians must play piano. Emiko\'s book fills a void for non-pianists addressing specific technical problems which will help towards being able to use the piano to improve and enlarge one\'s playing and composing, no matter what instrument you play. This is a hands-on book directed towards immediate results. - David Liebman