Billy May - Musical Style

Musical Style

May's charts often featured brisk tempos and intricate brass parts. One distinctive feature of his style is his frequent use of trumpet mute devices; another, a saxophone glissando, is widely known as his "slurping saxes". However, May was also an accomplished writer in slower tempos, sometimes using string arrangements. Good examples of this aspect of his work include his brass chart for "These Foolish Things" on the Cole album Just One of Those Things and his string arrangement of "April in Paris" on Sinatra's Come Fly With Me album.

Read more about this topic:  Billy May

Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or style:

    That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
    Created to pretend we never die ...
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    To write well, to have style ... is to paint. The master faculty of style is therefore the visual memory. If a writer does not see what he describes—countrysides and figures, movements and gestures—how could he have a style, that is originality?
    Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)