TromboneChat

Recommendations? I formed a quintet so that the pain of the 1st parts of a quartet could be shared, but I'm finding the 5-part stuff can be more interesting. Unfortunately it's not a long list and we could use more...

Last Lap - McKee (quite rowdy)
Crescent City Postcards - Theisen
Um Mitternacht - Bruckner/Williams (slightly less painful than Cristus Factus Est, but same general flavor)
Fantasia (Hypodorian) - Stoltzer/King (typical Robert King stuff, but it works)

This arrangement of "Girl with the flaxen hair" is really nice too - an extra chord tone here and there changes things:

Pederson has a whole list of quintet stuff. Also, you might check out groups like Capitol Bones from DC. Massively killer group with a full rhythm section. If you can contact Matt Neiss, I'm not sure if they have a way to share charts, or not, but they have a lot of really amazing charts they have written themselves. I think Matt also teaches at Shenandoah Conservatory.

There's also the Jefferson's Bones from Charlottesville VA I think.

We share the lead parts around the group with a quartet. Even on bass, I'll sometimes take a lead part (if the 4th part is high enough for someone else to hack it).

Sometimes I do wish our 4tet were a 5tet, if for nothing else, maybe just to make it easier to write for extended chords.

Another benefit is that one missing player doesn't completely kill the session.

I found Matt Neiss' "Thought About You" for big band with bass bone solo, it's fun and interesting and a good chart but I think he writes the first bone parts with himself in mind, and not many players have that combination of range and endurance. The lead trumpet has a lot of work on that chart too. I play in a band that could do it, but it would use up a significant chunk of the gas needed for everything else.

I'd like to do some bones&rhythm stuff but we'd need at least one different bone player, not to mention the rhythm section.