Gene Ammons

• New Minus You, Ray Starling, and more new arrivals

  Just in time for Father’s Day, we have a message from Justin Robinson. Love Thy Father is a ballad with colorful harmonies, which Justin recorded both in 1997 and 2017.

  We have more new titles up on jazzleadsheets.com. Two of them have exclusive “Further Explorations” audio available in Minus You format. The first of these is May Moon, a dreamy, lyrical 3/4 song by pianist/vocalist Dena DeRose. Lost In You is a warm, impassioned ballad by jazzleadsheets.com’s Don Sickler. This song is available in a unique duo Minus You setting accompanied only by piano. Now’s your chance to work on your ballad playing with legendary pianist Ray Bryant!

  We’re welcoming another new composer to jazzleadsheets.com. Ray Starling was a trumpeter, mellophonist, and pianist who played in several big bands in the ‘60s. He wrote Mellophobia and Four Of A Kind to feature the mellophone section of Stan Kenton’s big band, which he both played in and wrote for in 1961-62. Our lead sheets for these songs show the intros, codas, and a few countermelodies from the big band arrangements; both songs certainly work just as well in a small group setting.

  Also new to jazzleadsheets.com are two easy, laid-back blues heads in a classic hard bop style. Nice ’N Greasy is a funky riff head by Adriano Acea, originally recorded by trumpeter Lou Donaldson. The JAMFs Are Coming is a Johnny Griffin classic; Johnny recorded it many times from the ‘60s to his very last album in 2008. Not a blues but in a similar vein, The One Before This is one of Gene Ammons’ best-known compositions. We have condensed scores and horn parts for the two-horn arrangement from the classic Ammons/Sonny Stitt album “Boss Tenors,” as well as a three-horn arrangement recorded in 1995 by organist Jimmy Smith.

• Spring is in full swing at jazzleadsheets.com

  Several years ago, Second Floor Music started putting out sextet arrangements that were recorded by the exciting group “One For All.” Two of the prominent writers in that group are Eric Alexander and Jim Rotondi who started recording together in 1996, a year before “One For All” officially recorded its first album. Eric and Jim have enjoyed writing compositions together over the years, and Biru Kirusai is one of at least seven of these collaborations.

  Quiet Fire is the second Donald Brown composition that we’re making available on jazzleadsheets.com. If you’re not familiar with this marvelous composer, this is a good place to start. Neither the melody or the solo chord progression is difficult. The first eight-measure phrase of the melody sets you up for adding eight measures of “colors” before resuming with twelve more measures of melody leading into a different “colors” section. It’s an added treat to hear the “colors” of Donald’s piano and the vibes of Steve Nelson on this recording.

  Steve Nelson is also another one of our marvelous composers, and Song For Justine is a constantly evolving melodic tour de force as it develops over its eighty-measure form.

  For those of you who only know the great bluesy and funky sides of Gene Ammons, we want to Sock you with one of his more swinging boppish heads.

  Lonnie Hillyer was one of our great trumpet players, and a good composer who unfortunately didn’t get to record his own compositions. Lonnie got to play Soft Shoulder on some gigs as a member of Charlie Rouse’s quintet, but unfortunately that group never got to record. I think everyone is going to enjoy playing it. I certainly know I have.

  Jazz lives if we play it!

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

  New this week: This week we start something new. Two different arrangements of the same composition. Scroll down to see “Description” and “Historical Notes” for each recording as well as to hear a sample of each.

  Ray Draper - Filide
  Two different Ray Draper arrangements. One is a quintet recording with John Coltrane. The second is a piano-less Max Roach quintet recording (3 horns). Comparing them makes for a very interesting study: how the melody is phrased differently, how the solo sections differ, the different intro and endings, etc.

  Roland Alexander - Pleasure Bent
  The Junior Cook recording is available as a single download, but the Roland Alexander recording is only available as an “album” download. There are four great Ronnie Mathews compositions also available on that album download (from iTunes or Concord Music Group), so we’re adding them to jazzleadsheets.com over the next two weeks.
  Get the whole album at Concord Music Group: Purchase CD

  Ronnie Mathews - two compositions: Ichi-Ban and The Thang
  An original, a great performer and interpreter, and two of his challenging and fun compositions. More coming in the next few weeks.

  Gene Ammons - Tastin’ The Jug
  The first title played at the session, after a recording gap of 7 years, a great blues head.

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