Brassify is a library of bloco arrangements: familiar pop, funk and soul reworked with a Brazilian groove, built to be played by anything from a small group up to a full-scale bloco.
The charts are written by Tom Ashe, founder and director of Favela Brass, the music school in Rio de Janeiro. They are the mainstay of the Favela Brass repertoire.
Each chart is scored for:
One player per part works for a small group. For a bigger band, put as many players as you like on each part. Favela Brass, for example, doubles the trumpets, trombones and the alto and tenor saxes, for a standard big-band horn line-up.
Many charts also include the trombone parts in B♭ treble clef, for brass banders and German Tenorhorn players.
Every chart has its parts ready to download: the full score, a zip of all the parts, and each instrument on its own. Print as many as your band needs.
We only ask one thing: tell us how it goes. Hearing another band play this music is the whole reason it exists.
Charts carry an edition number: a new whole number (ED. 2) is a new version that replaces the old parts, while a decimal (ED. 2.1) is a compatible correction you can mix with earlier prints.
The most important section to get right, especially for non-Brazilian bands, is the percussion. If the grooves are right, that is the main thing for getting the party started.
In practice that means:
One piece of guidance for performance: before dance moves or anything else, the priority is getting the parts learned by heart.
The main thing is the connection between the musicians and the audience, and heads buried in sheet music are the first barrier to remove.
Want a tune that isn't in the library? Tom takes commissions. Email him what your band needs.
Email tom@favelabrass.org, or follow along on YouTube.