First to go are the ones that scored lowest overall - Term Break, In a Mellow Tone, and Memories of You. All good pieces, but not in the general spirit of the the gig.
Next are the lowest scorers in each type. I'm Beginning to See the Light, Four, Summertime (which was, as you recall, a repeat from last year), and Solitude. Down to 23, we're more than halfway done.
At this point, it's not too early to try to arrange the remaining contenders into sets. At HudsonFest, we played 12 songs, 3 sets of 4 each, for almost exactly an hour. At Brandt Beach, we're going to play for somewhere between 1 and 2 hours, so I'd like to have 5 sets of 4 each - that's 20 songs. With a short break between sets 3 and 4, that's probably about 2 hours of music. Within each set of 4, I like all the pieces to either be in the Real Book, or loose-leaf.
So, we've got 9 songs left that are in the Real Book. Let me try arranging them into sets, and see if one falls out. They fall into sets pretty easily (alternating slower songs with bouncy energetic ones), and the lowest scoring of the 9 is Sometime Ago, so it's an easy one to cut.
Ok, now to work the other 14 songs into three sets of 4 songs each (and see which two get cut). There are three ballads (with the same combined score) competing for the last slot. Ain't Misbehavin' is one we've played recently (and the others are new), so it's out for now. It Ain't Necessarily So is a great piece, but I think it deserves more rehearsal, as it has some tricky tempo changes. That leaves "Nice Work if you can get it" as the last of the 14 songs.
So, that's the tentative songlist we'll bring to the next rehearsal, during which the list will be tweaked, prodded, and set into shape.
I hope to see you at Brandt Beach in Mattapoisett, MA on July 24th!