Recording: Stan Getz - The Brothers
Recorded on: April 8, 1949
Label: Prestige (PRLP 7022)
Concert Key: C
Vocal Range: , to
Style: Swing (medium up)

Tenor Sax - Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Allen Eager, Brew Moore
Piano - Walter Bishop, Jr.
Bass - Gene Ramey
Drums - Charlie Perry

Play / pause

0:00

volume

Al Cohn - Battle Of The Saxes (The Brothers)

< previous

> next

This medium-up song is a classic example of that smooth, streamlined cool-jazz style that defines many Al Cohn compositions. It’s a relatively simple riff head based on the standard Exactly Like You. Though the recording comes from a session with five tenor saxes, only four play on the head; score and parts are available for the four-tenor arrangement. The four tenors are in close harmony on the A section, and tenor 1 (Stan Getz on the recording) has the melody alone on the bridge. In our second, third, and fourth parts, the bridge melody is cued so these players have the option to take the melody instead. Walter Bishop’s four-measure piano intro is included; our drum part has the melody cued almost throughout. Our arrangement shows a D.S. back to the top of the head after the solos, but on the recording the out head goes to C.

Click on the Solos tab for a description of our combined five-tenor transcription.

Of the five tenor saxophonists on this recording, it would be challenging to figure out which one is not playing in the four-part harmonies on the head. Based on the end of the trading chorus before the out head, it seems likely Zoot Sims is playing the fourth part.

Besides this song and Battleground, this session also included two songs by Gerry Mulligan. The rest of the LP “The Brothers” comes from a 1952 sextet session co-led by Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. The cover art for this album is by Don Martin, best known as a cartoonist for MAD Magazine; he did several other early Prestige covers including “Miles Davis and Horns” also featuring Al and Zoot (check out Tasty Pudding from this one).

A solo transcription is available, combining the tenor sax solos of Stan Getz, Brew Moore, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Allen Eager. All five play a chorus each, followed by a chorus of four-measure exchanges before the out head. This transcription is a great opportunity to see the similarities and differences in these players’ styles. As with Battleground, Zoot Sims stands out for the elegant simplicity of his lines. All soloists at some point use some variation of a certain melodic shape: a triad with a half-step approach up to the third—a type of phrase often played by Lester Young and an example of his influence on all of these players. Both Stan Getz and Al Cohn play a descending lick based on this shape, but in different places in the form: Getz two measures before B, and Cohn in the third measure of the B and seventh measure of C.

Stan Getz CLIP Brew Moore CLIP Zoot Sims CLIP Al Cohn CLIP Allen Eager CLIP fours-to-end CLIP

The combined solo transcriptions are 6 pages long, in C treble clef and B-flat.

Battle Of The Saxes – Al Cohn

Related Songs

Al Cohn