Sidemen's Books

Consists of parts for individual soloists, including parts for early Ellington Orchestra instumentalists, Barney Bigard, Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton and Otto Hardwick; later soloists including Paul Gonsalves; and long time band members Harry Carney and Lawrence Brown. Some folders are identified by a specific instrument. When individual soloists left the band their "books" were passed on to the next man who occupied the instrument chair. Therefore parts for an early band member might be found in later sidemen's books (for example: many parts for Barney Bigard are located in Jimmy Hamilton's book). Even though there are no "books" for prominent band members some of their parts might be available (for example; Ben Webster parts can be found in the tenor sax folders). The parts in Sidemen's Books were frequently used and many of them are in poor condition. To reduce handling of the material and to assist the researcher, an alphabetical title guide provides copyist and set number for individual sidemen or instrument for those pieces of music not attributed to any particular musician. Please note that title guides are works-in-progress and may not necessarily reflect a complete listing of folder contents.