An arranger of great renown in jazz orchestral circles, Sebesky worked across genres including symphonic and pop music. You may recognize his work with jazz greats Chet Baker or Paul Desmond.Or you may have heard his influence during performances of the New York Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, and even on popular singers like Barbara Streisand and Christina Aguilera.
Listen to this:
A slow strolling rhythm that turns into a burner with Sebesky’s arrangement enfolding the unrelenting pace of Wes Montgomery’s guitar work. A solid structure that seems to take orchestral flight. A symphonic airplane with Montgomery riding on top!
The strings build to a James Bond style blues walk — a solid dozen repetitions to underline the intense nature of the tune. This was the work of a world-class, one-of-a-kind arranger.
Sebesky produced an enormous body of work, wide in scope. As a recording artist, and through his collaborations with other artists, he has received 31 Grammy nominations, three Tony nominations, three Emmy nominations and four Clio Awards.
Sebesky loved music as a kid and tried every instrument he could get his hands on, eventually settling on the accordion. He said it was a good choice in that it taught harmony. After that came trombone, playing in bands, and writing arrangements.
In his book, The Contemporary Arranger he wrote, "Playing was a means to an end. It got me into a band so I could write for it."
In ‘61, he met CTI Records founder Creed Taylor who made some of the most iconic jazz recordings of the era.
For CTI records, Sebesky famously arranged for Wes Montgomery, who we heard above. Sebesky said Montgomery was intimidated when handed pages of musical notation.
"So we threw everything out, and we started all over again," Sebesky wrote in his book.
"Finally adopting the system which we still have...where the soloist has complete freedom…and then I create melodies and sections to underline what’s already done… instead of leading – the soloist leads me."
Sebesky did this with artists like Astrud Gilberto, Freddie Hubbard, and George Benson.
Here’s Sebesky’s arrangement of Benson’s White Rabbit:
Sebesky reimagined the Jefferson Airplane tune as a bubbly simmering '70s stew of a psychedelic trumpet trip.
Horn pops on top with low woodwinds girding the airy flutes which swirl around at the top, highlighting the guitarists as compliments to a large and varied instrument collective.
The album, Giant Box was Sebesky’s first recording for CTI records as lead artist.
And the lead track is a medley blending a Stravinsky masterpiece called “Firebird” with John McLaughlin’s “Birds of Fire” from the '70s fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The album also features a Sebesky original, “Free as a Bird” which blew the young mind of arranger/composer David Lee Joyner.
"When the main melody is played it’s the most beautiful orchestration I’d ever heard. It was so ethereal, and I dug into it," Joyner said in an interview.
Instead of the typical jazz set up of four trumpets and four trombones, the tune “Free as a Bird” features four flugelhorns, four euphoniums and tuba.
"It was just luscious, it had this transparency to it and quickness," Joyner said.
"And he doubled it with accordion and that’s when I found out that Don, in his development was an accordionist, as well as a trombonist. And I thought what is that sound? I could hear this reedy little sound mixed in there with it…who especially in jazz would have dared to throw that in as a coloration? That was a unique stroke of orchestration."
Don Sebesky would, and did, inspire generations of arrangers to come.
