Four Brothers (Jazz Standard)

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Four Brothers is a jazz composition by Jimmy Giuffre from 1947, which later received a text from Jon Hendricks .

The theme has 32 bars in the form AABA and is presented at a fast pace. The instrumental composition combines the eighth note swing of bebop and the sound of cool jazz with the harmony of swing . The piece Four Brothers was initially played by the Woody Herman Orchestra and was a feature for the wind section of three tenor saxophones and the band's baritone saxophone (whose saxophone set consisted of two alto, two tenor and one baritone saxophone, and whose second alto switched to tenor ), with an arrangement that allowed each brother a solo and ended in a chorus from the saxophone group.

The song was so characteristic of the sound of Woody Herman's Second Herd that this formation was also named the Four Brothers Band . The title also refers to the four musicians who play it in the original version: Stan Getz , Zoot Sims , Herbie Steward and Serge Chaloff for Herman (and was also occasionally applied to later saxophone sections of the Herman band). All four played the song with a slight vibrato tone in the style of Lester Young in the Count Basie Orchestra; Stan Getz had great success with "Four Brothers" shortly before he started his solo career.

Other recordings of the title exist from Manhattan Transfer , Jimmy Giuffre 3 , Anita O'Day and Art Pepper . Jon Hendricks recorded a sung version on the album Sing a Song of Basie with the later vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross , who was not yet called that at the time) .

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