Future Was Now – Bill Mobley

A complex, colorful song with no key center, The Future Was Now (originally recorded as The Future Is Now) has a soaring, lyrical melody that connects the many harmonic and rhythmic shifts. Dynamic contrasts add further definition to this song through its extended form. Sixty measures in total, the form is ABCABD with each section 12 measures long except the B sections which are six measures. The feel switches between swing and samba several times within a chorus: A is swing (2-feel), B is samba, and C starts with swing but goes to samba in the last four measures. D stays swing, with a bass pedal in the first eight measures. At C the bass has similar pedal-like figures to D, but with the chords changing. In the D section, modes are indicated instead of chord symbols; these alternate between C aeolian (natural minor) and C lydian.

Though the two A sections are identical, and likewise the two B sections, we have chosen to write out the entire head with no repeats rather than showing C as a first ending and D as a second ending; we feel it's easier to read straight through rather than having to go back so far for the second half.

Solos are on the same form, with the changes slightly simplified but retaining many of the rhythm section hits and pedal figures, and all the feel changes, from the head. There is an intro, which is the same as the D section of the head with just the rhythm section. This intro is notated on two staves with the bass line in our Concert Condensed Score which is also the rhythm section part. Our lead sheets and parts show the piano top line of the intro.

About the arrangement: Second parts are available for the two-horn arrangement. The horns begin in unison but harmonize on many important longer melody notes; the D section is mostly voiced in fourths. On the recording, the soprano sax plays harmony below the trumpet. We have a soprano sax second part as recorded; almost throughout, this part isn't too high for tenor sax so our tenor sax second part is in the same register. However, it is too high for trombone; our trombone second part is written an octave lower. The harmonies are quite tight; this trombone second part only works with the first part in the same register, such as another trombone reading the C bass clef lead sheet. For two guitars, we have a guitar lead sheet written an octave above the standard C treble clef lead sheet, with a guitar second part sounding in the same register as the soprano sax second part.