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.
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“Through man, and woman, and sea, and star,
Saw the dance of nature forward far;
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Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes.”
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