Romp – Renee Rosnes

True to its title, this is a song you can really have fun with—even though it's a bit of a challenge due to its irregular form. Romp is built on a catchy rhythmic theme over a pedal point in the bass that shifts up a minor third, from E♭ to G♭. This theme appears at the beginning of both the A and B sections, which are each nine measures long. The last five measures of these sections continue the thread of the melody over mostly descending II-V7s with some tasty side-slips. There is a coda that extends these side-slips up and down for two extra measures.

There is no chord symbol on the pedal parts of the A and B section themes, but on the solos E♭6 and G♭7 are played here; on the recording Renee implies a general major sound for both in her right-hand voicings for the melody.

Our lead sheet and bass part come from Renee's original manuscript. In addition we have a melody transcription showing the right-hand line (with a few notable left-hand comping rhythms) of Renee's piano melody, as well as Scott Colley's bass figures and lines, for both in and out heads. As befits a song called Romp, Renee toys around with the melodic rhythms a bit. Scott Colley's pedal lines are a bit simpler than those shown in our bass part. This transcription also includes the setup for the out head from the recording. After the drum solo, the drums play a two-measure rhythmic pattern related to the start of the head twice; the bass then enters for the same pattern two more times (with a double-stop open fifth, which Scott also uses on the head), and the piano left hand joins the bass for two more before the head.