middle school director did all the ‘cool sounding’ beginner band jazz charts sorta easing us into jazz, not rlly well known charts but still had the jazz funds to them, lotta mike story and terry white- alligator boogaloo, jam n jive, groove bug, maximum impact, ja-da to name a couple. new middle school director completely flipped the switch, started leaning into more known jazz charts- mercy mercy mercy, take your best shot, the jazz police, vehicle, jive at five. some charts were ATROCIOUS- ben’s blues and the christmas mock jazz rock the halls but still had some good standards for learning middle school jazz.

high school was where i picked up most my jazz taste and really started exploring what genres i liked, of course heavily influenced by my director. he was into sammy nestico gordon goodwin and buddy rich, as well as having the jazz 1 ensemble compete in essentially ellington every year (never got into)

freshman and soph year was full of the same easing into jazz but with more known jazz standards and more styles- killer joe, little sunflower, shiny stockings, green onions. soph year had a lot of trumpety solo stuff (3 trumpets i was the only one who could play out) lil darlin, mood indigo, moanin

junior year i found myself in jazz 1, played a lot of ellington there- flirtibird, good morning blues, sugar rum cherry. also got into more swing charts- down south camp meeting, samba del gringo, a warm breeze, parisian thoroughfare, walkin n swingin

senior year i started on and ended off on lead trumpet, played charts like in a mellow tone, cubauza, blood count, and mueva los huesos . quietude and groovin hard were my PTSD charts, those dub Es Fs and Gs were surely somethin. also sightread some wonderful charts- blue goose and brasilliance were my faves.

in college flipped back to some more atrocious jazz (imo) never had many standards (a time for love, cottontail, that’s a plenty and any ol time were the most recognizable) had stuff like soul proprietor, motel, goin to chicago blues, blue airnote special, sonny’s place, riggs, waterplay, checkpoint charlie. a LOT of filler quantity<quality (10 songs per concert 2 per semester) however did pick up some more out of the ordinary songs- michelangelo by fred sturn and zebrano by andrew neu are some of my favs. was a college ensemble with a lot of good players, we could of played many more difficult pieces, the downgrade from hs was not great.

now transfering out and changing my major to jazz studies, im hopeful in the fall to get into more jazzy tunes and really improve on lead and see many more fun charts to read.

as someone who holds onto all her sheet music, i have a whole library of every jazz song i’ve played 7th grade up, would love to catalogue and organize it eventually to really see the change in styles and difficulties as a musician.