Little Lucas – Eric Alexander
This modal composition has only been around for ten years, but has already been recorded in several different settings from quartet to big band.
- Recording: Eric Alexander - It's All In The Game
- Recorded on: July 29, 2005
- Label: HighNote (HCD 7148)
- Concert Key: No key center
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander
- Piano - Harold Mabern
- Bass - Nat Reeves
- Drums - Joe Farnsworth
There are some differences between this first recording of Little Lucas and our lead sheets. After this recording, Eric started fine-tuning the melody and added a rhythm section intro, which he also uses under the melody of the last four measures of each A section. All of these adjustments are present in our lead sheets.
This song has a similar harmonic language to Joe Henderson's classic Inner Urge. All the chords of the A section are major 7ths, which for the first four measures alternate moving a half step up followed by a major 3rd down. The bridge provides a contrast, with II-Vs leading to E♭; this section appears twice. Though the form is essentially AABBA, the melody is slightly different on all A and B sections, traveling through the changes in increasingly complex ways. The solo form is longer than the head; the chords that were two beats long in the A sections of the melody are now each a measure long, making a 12-measure section.
For a description of the intro and related rhythm section figures, click on the One For All album cover, "The Lineup."
Eric plays the melody in the range indicated in the B♭ tenor sax lead sheet, but with a slightly different melody in the bridge.
This song has a similar harmonic language to Joe Henderson's classic Inner Urge. All the chords of the A section are major 7ths, which for the first four measures alternate moving a half step up followed by a major 3rd down. The bridge provides a contrast, with II-Vs leading to E♭; this section appears twice. Though the form is essentially AABBA, the melody is slightly different on all A and B sections, traveling through the changes in increasingly complex ways. The solo form is longer than the head; the chords that were two beats long in the A sections of the melody are now each a measure long, making a 12-measure section.
For a description of the intro and related rhythm section figures, click on the One For All album cover, "The Lineup."
Eric plays the melody in the range indicated in the B♭ tenor sax lead sheet, but with a slightly different melody in the bridge.
"It's All In The Game" is the twelfth Eric Alexander album to feature Harold Mabern, the tenth with both Mabern and Farnsworth, and the second with this exact personnel. It is only Eric's second album as a leader for High Note. The melody Eric plays on the bridge in this version of Little Lucas was used in Michael Dease's big band arrangement, recorded on his 2013 album "Relentless
."
The composition was named for Eric's son Lucas.
."The composition was named for Eric's son Lucas.
- Recording: One For All - The Lineup
- Recorded on: February 20, 2006
- Label: Sharp Nine (1037)
- Concert Key: No key center
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Trumpet - Jim Rotondi
- Trombone - Steve Davis
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander
- Piano - David Hazeltine
- Bass - John Webber
- Drums - Joe Farnsworth
This sextet arrangement introduces the intro written on the lead sheet. The "simile intro" written for the fifth through eighth measure of the A section means that the bass and piano (left hand) should play the same four-measure figure as on the intro.
With our lead sheet editions, now everyone can learn the melody. But if you have a combo, the printed sextet arrangement, with full score and alternate parts, is available at MusicDispatch.com.
With our lead sheet editions, now everyone can learn the melody. But if you have a combo, the printed sextet arrangement, with full score and alternate parts, is available at MusicDispatch.com.
Recorded less than a year after Eric's "It's All In The Game" album, "The Lineup" is the tenth album by One For All. This album introduces the only personnel change of the band's long career: the introduction of bassist John Webber. Peter Washington had played on most of One For All's previous albums, with Ray Drummond filling in on "The Long Haul" (2000) and "No Problem (2003), and David Williams playing on the 2005 album "Killer Joe."
- Recording: Eric Alexander - Prime Time, In Concert
- Recorded on: April 22, 2007
- Label: HighNote (HCD 7201)
- Concert Key: No key center
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander
- Piano - David Hazeltine
- Bass - John Webber
- Drums - Joe Farnsworth
This live quartet recording (One For All without the brass) features an updated arrangement based on the One For All version. The intro is the same, though drummer Joe Farnsworth plays on the bell of the cymbal, resulting in a slightly more Latin sound. Eric plays the melody on the bridge the way it is in the One For All version; on the first A section he takes measures 5 and 6 up an octave from where it is written in the B♭ tenor sax lead sheet.
This concert from Asheville, North Carolina, is also available as a DVD (which comes with the CD). The quartet made up of One For All minus trumpeter Jim Rotondi and trombonist Steve Davis appears on two other albums, both under Alexander's leadership. The first, "Two Of A Kind", was recorded in New York in 1996 (see David Hazeltine's Pentimento for more details); the second was "My Favorite Things," recorded in Tokyo in September 2007.
- Recording: Meeting Point - Quintessence
- Recorded on: September, 2008
- Label: Challenge (CR 73291)
- Concert Key: No key center
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Trumpet - Jim Rotondi
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander
- Piano - Andrei Kondakov
- Bass - Dmitri Kolesnik
- Drums - Lenny White
The arrangement on this recording is the same as on the One For All album "The Lineup," but played by a quintet. Without the trombone, some of the trumpet's background lines to the tenor sax melody on the bridge are not played. Otherwise, however, the sextet arrangement works equally well as a quintet arrangement.
The printed sextet arrangement, with full score and alternate parts, is available from MusicDispatch.com.
The printed sextet arrangement, with full score and alternate parts, is available from MusicDispatch.com.
This quintet, with Eric Alexander and Jim Rotondi from One For All alongside veteran drummer Lenny White and a pianist and bassist both originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, met for just this album.
One more recording of Little Lucas is available: a big band version from trombonist Michael Dease, on his 2013 album "Relentless
."
One more recording of Little Lucas is available: a big band version from trombonist Michael Dease, on his 2013 album "Relentless
."
Eric Alexander
born on August 4, 1968
A straight-ahead jazz saxophonist, Eric Alexander is known for his sophisticated hard- and post-bop style. Born in Illinois, he began as a classical musician studying alto sax, but quickly began an obsession with the tenor saxophone at Indiana University at Bloomington. Inspired to pursue his musical pursuits further, Eric transferred to William Paterson College in New Jersey, where he studied with jazz legends like Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Norman Simmons and Rufus Reid. After receiving his degree, he moved back to the Midwest, where he became a fixture in the Chicago club scene touring with Charles Earland. Read more...