Big Band (5/4/4)

• Style: Medium Up Swing / Rock / Funk
• Grade 4: High School / Collegiate
• ~7:00
• Soloists: Soprano Saxophone and Drumset

This chart was originally composed for a jazz octet and has been readapted for the 2023 One O’Clock Big Band. This chart is a Soprano Sax and/or Trumpet 3 feature and is designed to walk the line between different genres in the lineage of Black American Music. It relies heavily on extended techniques and effects pedals in the guitar, violin, and the horn soloists. This work is titled after a roommate of mine who had sleep paralysis and would wake up in the middle of the night and stare at me very creepily (he couldn’t help it). The airy and somewhat unsettling phrygian soundscape is meant to depict this feeling. This piece draws from rock, free music, jazz, and R&B and has a little something for everyone.

*This version of Staring in the Night has been reduced down to standard big band instrumentation and been made slightly easier / more achievable for high school bands by lowering the range in the trumpet 1 and trombone 1 parts.