Cherry Float – Johnny Griffin

A "rhythm changes" riff head at a bouncy medium tempo. The melody is quite simple, but has some specific embellishments which we show in our lead sheet. There are "turn" ornaments—16th-note triplets G-A-G replacing an 8th-note G—in each phrase of the A section. On the in head, Johnny Griffin plays these on the second A section only; the ornaments here are shown in parentheses. He plays them on both A sections of the out head. In the bridge there are grace-note figures that descend to the lower notes of the melody with brief crescendos.

This song starts right on the melody with no intro; there is a four-measure tag ending. Johnny Griffin plays the melody in a low register, so our B♭ lead sheet works both for tenor sax and for trumpet sounding an octave above. The C lead sheet would sound in the same octave on guitar as where Johnny plays it on tenor.