Basheer's Dream – Gigi Gryce
This Afro-Cuban piece really should be a Latin jazz standard: it's an all-around winning composition.
- Recording: Kenny Dorham - Afro-Cuban
- Recorded on: March 29, 1956
- Label: Blue Note (BLP 1535)
- Concert Key: G minor
- Style: Latin (Mambo)
- Trumpet - Kenny Dorham
- Tenor Sax - Hank Mobley
- Trombone - J.J. Johnson
- Baritone Sax - Cecil Payne
- Piano - Horace Silver
- Bass - Oscar Pettiford
- Drums - Art Blakey
- Conga - Carlos "Patato" Valdes
- Claves - Richie Goldberg or Gigi Gryce
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Gigi's original manuscript indicates Med. Latin (Afro-Cuban) for the tempo heading. Don Sickler: "I'd love to know whether Kenny Dorham asked Gigi to write something for his "Afro-Cuban" date, or whether it was already written and brought to Kenny, since that was the project's theme."
The major goal of jazzleadsheets.com is to provide accurate lead sheets so everyone can learn to play the melodies of great jazz composers. Gigi's whole arrangement is great, with backgrounds, interludes and shout chorus, but the melody can also be played and enjoyed on any instrument. Send us an email (don@secondfloormusic.com) if you think the whole arrangement should be available.
Our excerpt starts with the melody. The bass line intro on the recording (also used as the ending) is shown on the leadsheets.
The major goal of jazzleadsheets.com is to provide accurate lead sheets so everyone can learn to play the melodies of great jazz composers. Gigi's whole arrangement is great, with backgrounds, interludes and shout chorus, but the melody can also be played and enjoyed on any instrument. Send us an email (don@secondfloormusic.com) if you think the whole arrangement should be available.
Our excerpt starts with the melody. The bass line intro on the recording (also used as the ending) is shown on the leadsheets.
"Afro-Cuban" was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Hackensack Studio.
By the time of this date, Gigi had only been on the jazz recording scene for less than two years, but he was already becoming known as a composer and arranger. This was his first encounter in the recording studio with Kenny Dorham. In their book Rat Race Blues (The Musical Life Of Gigi Gryce), Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald feel it was likely that Gigi was at the session to direct his arrangement. They also point out that the unnamed percussionist, who has been suggested to be Richie Goldberg, could have been Gigi himself, who they feel was probably in the studio.
This piece also offers one of the earliest appearances of Gryce's Muslim name, Basheer Qusim, which he would use exclusively after he left the music business.
Noal Cohen's discography on Gigi Gryce is another fascinating source of information about Gryce.
Check out the other titles on the "Afro-Cuban" album.
By the time of this date, Gigi had only been on the jazz recording scene for less than two years, but he was already becoming known as a composer and arranger. This was his first encounter in the recording studio with Kenny Dorham. In their book Rat Race Blues (The Musical Life Of Gigi Gryce), Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald feel it was likely that Gigi was at the session to direct his arrangement. They also point out that the unnamed percussionist, who has been suggested to be Richie Goldberg, could have been Gigi himself, who they feel was probably in the studio.
This piece also offers one of the earliest appearances of Gryce's Muslim name, Basheer Qusim, which he would use exclusively after he left the music business.
Noal Cohen's discography on Gigi Gryce is another fascinating source of information about Gryce.
Check out the other titles on the "Afro-Cuban" album.
Gigi Gryce
November 28, 1925 – March 17, 1983
Gigi Gryce was a fine altoist in the 1950s, but it was his writing skills, both composing and arranging (including composing the standard Minority) that were considered most notable. After growing up in Hartford, CT, and studying at the Boston Conservatory and in Paris, Gryce worked in New York with Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Clifford Brown. He toured Europe in 1953 with Lionel Hampton and led several sessions in France on that trip. Read more...