Joe Avery Blues ♫ arranged by Rich Willey

Description

Joe Avery Blues  ♫ arranged by Rich Willey, sometimes known as Second Line  or Joe Avery’s Piece. Joseph “Kid” Avery was a New Orleans trombonist and bandleader born in 1892 who took the very old “Holler Blues”  melody and made it his own. The precise origin of this classic tune may be shrouded in mystery and folk legend, but this version is sure to get your audience tapping their feet, and maybe even dancing on the tables.

This flexible arrangement is 41 written measures with the main melody on the way in, a send-off figure to launch each new soloist, and an out-chorus to take you home. Intermediate level of difficulty—any good high school-level group ought to be able to pull this off with no problem.

As you can hear in the recording (below), this can feature as many instrumental soloists as you like. Parts come as a PDF that you’ll be able to download immediately upon submission of your order.

★ Playable by Brass Quintet: Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, French Horn 3, Trombone 4, Tuba 5, add drums (optional).
★ Playable by “Trad Jazz” Band: Trumpet 1, Trumpet or Clarinet 2, Alto or Tenor Sax 3, Trombone or Tenor Sax 4 and Tuba 5. Add drums and banjo or piano using chords symbols and roadmaps from Tuba part.

Written solos for any of our charts may be special ordered at a reasonable cost. Email us through our contact page with any and all inquiries.

Here’s Rich in his digital recording studio playing a brief rendition of this arrangement with Russ Wilson on drums and Henry Westmoreland on tuba: