(8 Brass) Blue Units was commissioned by John Harmon and the Wisconsin State High School Honors Jazz Ensemble. Plenty of Bb blues solo space is available for any instrument, and an optional guitar solo over a G7 vamp provides an opportunity for those guitarists more experienced in rock environments to solo comfortably. The arrangement, written in a contrapuntal style reminiscent of Bill Holman, features some unusual formal twists, as well as a fake ending. This piece works well with high school and young university groups.

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CHUCK DOTAS is currently a member of the faculty of music at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and directs the James Madison University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Band. Professor Dotas holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the Eastman School of Music and has completed doctoral-level coursework at the University of Northern Colorado. Dotas has taught instrumental music in the Wisonsin public schools and was a member of the Jazz Studies faculty at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec from 1994-1998. Dotas has studied compositon and jazz arranging with Ray Wright, Manny Albam, Bill Dobbins, Fred Sturm and Samuel Adler. His music has been performed in Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and throughout the United States by artists such as Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Phil Woods and Steve Kuhn. Dotas' music is published through UNC Jazz Press and Margun Music.