A jazz composer and arranger committed to offering innovative, quality music at the lowest prices. My early musical training was on guitar, then trumpet and piano. Towards the end of high school (thanks to a wonderful mentor and theory teacher, David Berlin) I saw the light and concentrated on arranging and composition.
I gigged my way through college, playing keyboards in several obscure Elks/Moose Lodge/wedding bands. It was in college that I got involved with musical theater, and wrote the scores to Carried Away, Movie Music, and co-wrote Salem After Midnight. My student compositions ran the gamut from piano solos, trios, woodwind, brass and string quartets, to jazz band and combo charts, to short orchestral pieces. My main teachers were Dr. Marilyn Thomas, Leonardo Balada, and Randy Purcell (Maynard Ferguson veteran). Eventually I earned a BFA degree in Music Composition from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Following four years of college, I found myself trained but flat broke, so I joined the Army - as a piano player. I spent ten years in Army bands, doing stints at Ft. Rucker (Alabama), Korea, Ft. Lewis (Washington), and Ft. Monmouth (New Jersey). Besides playing hundreds of gigs in jazz bands, combos, and cocktail settings, I got the "opportunity" to learn all the mallet instruments, timpani, and drums. For most of my tenure I was in charge of 8-10 piece show bands (rhythm section, 3-5 horns, and vocalists) that played my arrangements of cover tunes. I used this time to write and arrange for every group I could : concert band, marching band, stageband and combos, and of course the show band charts. While stationed in New Jersey I got the change to study at the Mannes College of Music, for two years, in jazz theory and arranging.
In 1995 I accepted an Army officer commission, and now concentrate on arranging and composing. I run two web sites, Jazz Charts and More! and Band Charts and More! to distribute my music. I also write and arrange a small number of pieces on commission each year, both jazz and legit.
Joe Hasper can be contacted at jhasper@hotmail.com or at his web site.
Joe's tunes are in PDF format.
Dis 'n Dat (Stageband/Big Band/Jazz Ensemble). This is a medium tempo swing tune scored for full stageband (5-4-4 plus rhythm). Medium easy difficulty, with solid section writing.
A Common Thing (Leadsheet). This is an original composition, a funky samba. I've played this one in trio and quartet settings, and it's a lot of fun for the rhythm section.
Near The End Of The Day (Leadsheet). This is another original composition, a full textured ballad. I wrote this polytonal mood piece to try to capture the feeling of Round Midnight, one of my favorite Monk pieces. Makes a nice starting point for an extended interpretation. Completely written out for piano.
G.I. Beans (Leadsheet). In this piece I've thrown off the yoke of 4 bar phrasing, and set it up to work well with drum breaks in the style of Cute. This is another fun change-of-pace tune in a trio and quartet setting. File size is 15kb!
Original Jazz Charts / sam@bsharp.org