Blue Lament – Kenny Dorham

A fascinating song in that inimitable Kenny Dorham style. Blue Lament is full of subtle detail of all kinds—there is always something of interest in the melody, harmony, rhythm and arrangement—without ever being overly complicated. It’s held together by an extremely memorable melody, haunting and solemn throughout. The flow of both melody and changes is so exquisitely natural that it’s easy to overlook that this song actually has no key center. Though F minor, B♭ minor, and D♭ major are all touched on at some point in the form, there are no clear resolutions; the final chord, Dmaj7(♯11), is really more of a stepwise “side-slip” than any sort of tonic.

Like the melody, the form is clever and subtly unpredictable. It’s 24 measures in total, but the second eight measures (the B section) is actually twice as fast, a double-time swing section with a rhythmic riff in the piano and drums filling in the long notes of the melody. C is back to the ballad tempo; it’s eight measures again but not quite a repeat of A. Instead, the start of the A section melody returns starting with a pickup to the second measure of C. The melody goes in a different direction in the last three measures of C, with a dramatic rise and fall.

Solos are on the head form, but with double-time on both the A and B sections (D and E in our lead sheets and parts). The harmonic rhythm of D is the same as A at the ballad tempo, written as 16 measures in double-time. The D.S. for the out melody goes to the second measure of C, resulting in an out melody only seven measures long. There is a four-measure piano intro on the recording, based on the beginning of the melody; this is not shown in our score and parts.

About the arrangement: We have a Full Score and parts for the arrangement as recorded by Don Sickler. Our lead sheet is the 1st horn part. The 2nd horn part adds harmony for some of the A section, and joins the piano and drum hits at B. Our rhythm section parts are fully notated; the piano part shows voicings for most of the melody besides the B section hits.