Hey
@casualmusic, thank you for the like.
No, I don't know what this kind of chart is called, but it is a common convention to use this kind of chart in jazz bands. A lot of the players know the "head" (the main melodic line of a song) by heart, so what they need, at most, is a chart such as this (without the lyrics) to play the song through.
Normally, I would write up a chord chart like this minus the lyrics, but I didn't know if Albion would need to see at least some text in there for orientation and phrasing purposes. If I tried to cram in all the lyrics in there, it would quickly become a confusing mess, so I just highlight words landing on important beats in the phrase. It is a balancing act, ya know?
I started writing charts like this when I was in my first swing band. We had quite a lot of songs in the repertoire and I kept charts like this as loose sheets in a folder. The saxophone player, my good friend Adrian, insisted that chords be oriented to bar lines and that the structural conventions (like repeats, second endings, codas, etc.) of standard musical notation be followed. I also started placing the chord symbols within the bar so that you could see on which beat the chord should be played within the bar. This is quite helpful when you have a several (or many!) chord changes in every bar of music.
Adrian would refuse to play from the kind of charts that are just chord symbols over (or interspersed with) lyrical text. That was just not enough solid information for a horn player (and no, they don't care what the lyrics are!) They need a chart similar to this to navigate through the song in a sensible manner and not get lost.
There is an excellent app for tablets and phones called iReal Pro. It creates and organises charts such as this one. I have an old iPad with that app and pretty much nothing else on it but charts for swing tunes. It is super handy. When I got that, I didn't have to write them out with pencil and paper anymore. Check it out!
