Mr. Day's Dream – James Williams
A dreamy medium swing in 3/4. Solo piano arrangement with exclusive audio track available.
- Recording: James Williams - Progress Report
- Recorded on: May 22 & 24, 1985
- Label: Sunnyside (SSC 1012)
- Concert Key: F-sharp minor
- Style: 3/4 swing (medium)
- Flute - Bill Easley
- Soprano Sax - Bill Pierce
- Guitar - Kevin Eubanks
- Piano - James Williams
- Bass - Rufus Reid
- Drums - Tony Reedus
The form of this composition is A-8 A1-8 B-12 C-12. The audio excerpt starts on the melody which is set up on the recording with James soloing over the rhythm section (using the chord progression from C). The first A is 1-feel which James develops in the A1 section by adding chords to the melody on each 3rd beat, as you can hear in the excerpt.
James uses a rich harmonic vocabulary and his voicings obviously can't be adequately expressed in chord symbols alone. We recommend you check out his Solo Piano Arrangement which is available as a separate edition.
in a quartet format in 1999.Second Floor Music has printed combo charts and big band arrangements of the music of many of the talented musicians who played with the great jazz drummer and leader Art Blakey. See links to the publications by James Williams below. All are available for sale from MusicDispatch.com and other music stores. More detailed information on each can be found at the Second Floor Music informational website.
Details on charts by James Williams
Alter Ego (Quintet/Sextet) - HL00000608, $25.00
Beauty Within (Big Band) (Arr. Geoff Keezer) - HL00000860, $45.00
Black Scholars (Sextet) - HL00000842, $25.00
A Certain Attitude (Sextet) - HL00000616, $25.00
The Changing Of The Guard (Sextet) - HL00000618, $25.00
Intensive Care Unit (I.C.U.) (Quintet) - HL00000764, $25.00
Ph.D. (Sextet) - HL00000516, $25.00
Progress Report (Sextet) - HL00000686, $25.00
Rise To The Occasion (Sextet) - HL00000512, $25.00
The Soulful Mr. Timmons (Sextet/Septet) - HL00000652, $25.00
What Do You Say Dr. 'J'? (Sextet) - HL00000650, $25.00
James Williams
March 8, 1951 – July 20, 2004
James Williams' distinguished career began in the city in which he was raised: Memphis, Tennessee. Having taken up piano at the age of thirteen, he graduated from Memphis State University in the early seventies and threw himself into his city's jazz community. Only a year after attaining his degree, Williams was hired as a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Coming to a new city opened up an entirely new scene for the young pianist, who began to play as a sideman for visiting artists like Red Norvo, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt and Milt Jackson. When Art Blakey met him in 1977, he convinced the then-26 year-old Williams to resign from Berklee and go on tour with the Jazz Messengers, a post he held for the next four years and with whom he would win a Grammy Award nomination for the album "Straight Ahead." Read more...