It's Where It's At – Harold Land

Though originally written as a big band arrangement, this song is well worth playing with a small group. Its combination of modal vamp sections, stop-time and more II-V7 based harmonies is a good example of Harold Land's late '60s to '70s writing style. The vamp in question, which is also used as the intro and coda, is a four-measure rhythmic figure with a B major tonality. (Our lead sheets give the key signature as A♭ major as this is the first chord of the A section; the B major of the vamp also implies A♭ minor.) This four-measure figure appears twice at the end of each A section and C section, making these sections 14 measures long; the first six measures of these sections have more II-V7-based changes and stop-time hits on the head. The eight-measure B section swings with a 4-feel, with a descending series of dominant 13(♯11) chords. The melody of this song is relatively simple in a classic hard-bop style—a lot simpler than some of Harold Land's earlier compositions (like Compulsion or Landslide).

Our lead sheets show the dynamics used in the original big band arrangement. Both the intro and coda repeat the vamp progressively louder, with more horns added each time. In these sections, the melody pitches shown in our lead sheet are not the top notes every time; different repeats of the vamp have different notes in the chord as the top of the horn voicing. This can be explored in a small group setting as well.