Tasty mixture of traditional wind ensemble and high energy jazz combo give this standard a unique sound.

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This one started out around 2001 as a trumpet quartet, believe it or not. I am very heavily into recycling, so it's not unusual for my "projects" to manifest themselves in a variety of instrumentations, depending on any number of factors. We were living in metro Atlanta (Lawrenceville) at the time, and I was playing regularly with the Gwinnett Community Band. An offshoot, or sub-ensemble, of that group was a trumpet ensemble, which not only played at concerts but also at church services and other occasions. Nothing But the Blood was one of several pieces that I wrote for that group.

Overall, the arrangement is kind of in three sections, and while the trumpet ensemble was able to pull it off at one level, the contrast of the sections really begged for fuller and more varied instrumentation. The energy of the middle section called out for the addition of a rhythm section, which of course expanded to service the whole piece. The outer sections, being more "traditional", lyrical and legato, morphed into a woodwind ensemble, and the "poor" trumpets that reigned over the initial version were reduced to punctuation fills.