Midnight Sleighride and Sleigh Ride

Midnight Sleighride, from Lieutenant Kijé Suite - Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953), Arr. Tom Wallace
In 1953, Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, two highly creative and unique jazz band leaders and arrangers, wrote a holiday work for their big band based on Russian composer Serge Prokofiev's familiar “Troika” from Lieutenant Kije. Sauter and Finegan were known for their humor and for experimentation with sounds, including such playful additions as those created by kazoos, ratchets, glockenspiels, chimes, and an array of bells. Sauter occasionally joined in performing on a toy trumpet, and Finegan joked that his most effective solo with the band consisted of chest-thumping sounds, to model horses’ hooves, which he provided for the band's rendition of Midnight Sleighride. Tom Wallace’s setting of the Sauter-Finegan chart retains all the wit and charm of the original and features delightful high woodwind and low brass effects. This is pure holiday fun!
Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson, is the encore.
Recorded live, in concert, on December 17, 2023