An excellent example of how Mike re-works a standard in this manner to give it an entire different feeling is his use of a medium bossa nova rhythm for his chart on the Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer standard – Blues in the Night.
To my ears, Mike does a superior job of voicing sections in unison to play the melody and alternating these sections for a set number of bars so that a portion of the tune is heard through the trumpets, and then perhaps through the saxes and then later through the trombones. He may alter this pattern subsequently and change keys to continue to embellish the sound of the arrangement.
And then there are the voicings within sections for as Mike said: "Range is everything. Knowing how an instrument sounds in a certain range means blending or sticking out. Sometimes I push the limit but mostly I like to use the fat part of the instrument."
Yet while all of this – and more – is going on, Mike’s arrangements never sound strained or forced; they just flow.
