I’ve been working on more arrangements for the Lenoir Saxophone Ensemble and just finished writing a chart on Songbird, by Loonis McGlohon. I wasn’t familiar with the tune or the composer before being asked to write an arrangement of it. It’s really a beautiful tune, and has several interesting features.
The bridge is different in that it’s only 4 measures long, a little unusual but not unheard of. The opening chords for the A sections I found really fun to play with. Moving from D7#9 to EbMaj7 is an unusual progression with very colorful melody notes (F natural to G over those two chords).
Here’s a MIDI realization of my chart. I find the computer playback to be particularly unsatisfying on this arrangement. A little rubato should go a long way into making it more musical.
Here’s a video about McGlohon, the composer. It turns out there’s a North Carolina connection, as he was based in Charlotte.
