Jazz Ballads Alto Saxophone has some of the smoothest and most soulful jazz ballads from the last 100 years, arranged for solo alto saxophone, with a backing and demonstration CD.

Smooth jazz ballads for alto sax

The saxophone is the perfect instrument for playing ballads, it can produce a beautiful melancholy tone or play warmly and passionately, so really suits these emotional songs. The Jazz Ballads Alto Saxophone album includes great jazz songs you will know, including ‘Summertime’, ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Moon River’, and ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, all arranged for solo alto saxophone (grade 3-5) complete with backing CD. It even includes some black and white photos of the original artists to inspire you!

Improvisation and interpretation

The CD includes demonstration performances by a jazz quartet, led by the author of these arrangements, Dirko Juchem, to give you inspiration on how to interpret these classic jazz ballads. The chords are also written above the music, so you can improvise around the melodies if you wish and lyrics are written under the music to give you an idea of the feeling behind the song when you perform - or to share the melody with a vocalist. There is also a pull-out piano accompaniment in Jazz Ballads Alto Saxophone so that you can play along with friends or a teacher - or you can play along to the backing tracks provided on the CD.

Contents (A-Z)

• Amazing Grace - Traditional
• As time goes by - H. Hupfeld
• Autumn Leaves - J. Kosma  
• Blue Moon - R. Rogers
• Fly Me to the Moon - B. Howard
• Frankie and Johnny - Traditional
• How High the Moon - M. Lewis
• Moon River - H. Mancini
• My Way (Comme d’Habitude) - C. François, J. Revaux
• Night and Day - C. Porter
• Petite Fleur - S. Bechet
• Satin Doll - D. Ellington, B. Strayhorn
• Summertime - G. Gershwin, D. Howard
• Take the “A” train - B. Strayhorn
• Wade in the Water - Traditional
• Wayfaring Stranger - Traditional