"Sauce on the Side" is a fun chart for beginning jazz band and offers ample opportunities to feature soloists! Written in a "soul jazz" style that is mostly blues-based, this composition features a funky groove established by the repetitive bass figure that is characteristic of this genre. Opening statement of the melody is shared in lead trumpet and tenor sax, followed by a brass statement with sax section background riffs. The contrasting section features a more interesting harmonic area, with the melody in trumpets and altos and syncopated backgrounds in trombones and lower saxes. There is plenty of room for improv solos open to any instruments and optional riff-based saxophone backgrounds before an energetic full ensemble feature.
