December 4, 2023, is the 45th anniversary of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ recording session for the album “Reflections In Blue.” James Williams’ title track Reflections In Blue, an iconic Blakey shuffle, was already on jazzleadsheets.com; four more songs from this session are now available as well. These include another shuffle by Williams: (What Do You Say,) Dr. “J”. This 24-measure song is driven by a rhythmic bass line, which is shown in our C treble and bass clef lead sheets; the treble clef lead sheet also shows piano voicings on the B section. Also from Williams we have Stretching, a minor blues head written in tribute to trumpeter Woody Shaw and influenced by Woody’s distinctive post-bop style. We have a sextet condensed score reflecting the Blakey recording, but this song certainly works in a quartet setting as well.
Not Far At All, by Valery Ponomarev, was recorded at this session but only released on some reissues of another Jazz Messengers album, “In My Prime, Vol. 1”. It’s an example of another classic Blakey format, a stop-time medium-up swinger. Finally, “Reflections In Blue” includes the first version of one of Bobby Watson’s best-known compositions, E.T.A. This uptempo “burner”, a contrafact of John Coltrane’s Lazy Bird, was recorded many times by both Blakey and Watson. Melody transcriptions are available for two of Watson’s recordings; these are a great inspiration for interpreting the melody in a quartet lineup.