Along The Way – Cecilia Coleman

A catchy song in Cecilia Coleman’s distinctive, colorful style. Along The Way starts with a 12/8 Latin groove, propelled by a bass line that outlines the chords. The A and D sections of the 40-measure AABCD form alternate four measures each of 12/8 Latin and swing. The melody is soaring and lyrical with an open-ended sound; there is no obvious key center, with the A section changes shifting stepwise throughout. The chords here are all minor 7ths except for B♭maj7 at the end of the second A, which could be seen as the tonic though the D section (same as the first A) ends on Dm7. In between there is a B section full of shifting II-V7s, resolving to A♭ major at the start of the C section. In this latter section the bass (doubled by piano left hand) has an active line filling in around the longer notes of the melody. The bass lines for the intro and C are shown in all lead sheets.

The intro vamps on the first four measures of A; starting with bass alone, drums come in after four measures and piano after four more. The same vamp is used for a drum solo before the out head, with piano chord hits added that “bounce” off the bass line. The coda tags the last four measures two more times, with the first of these landing on B♭maj7 as in the second A section. On the recording, the rhythm section alternates 12/8 Latin and swing for the trumpet solo, going to swing throughout on the piano and tenor sax solos.