Cit Sac – Cecil Payne
A riff head on the changes of the standard Lover. Cecil recorded it twice: first on flute and then on baritone sax.
- Recording: Cecil Payne - Scotch And Milk
- Recorded on: September 2-3, 1996
- Label: Delmark (DE 494)
- Concert Key: C
- Style: Swing (uptempo)
- Trumpet - Marcus Belgrave
- Flute - Cecil Payne
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander, Lin Halliday
- Piano - Harold Mabern
- Bass - John Ore
- Drums - Joe Farnsworth
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Video
- Frank Basile Quartet with Jeb Patton (p), Dan Weisselberg (b), and Pete Van Nostrand (ds) Live at Ornithology 10/8/22
This uptempo riff-based song is based on the Rodgers and Hart standard Lover. Over the descending changes, the relatively simple melody uses the fifth, flat seventh, and root of the first chord and holds out the flat fifth of the second chord; this pattern repeats three times, except the long note on G7 is the root. In the 13th measure two hits (beats 1 and 2) set up a four-measure drum break, as often occurs in Lover. The bridge is bright and rhythmic in a Horace Silver vein, and holds a note out (G) for the last four measures.
Our lead sheet has some piano comping rhythms under the staff; some of them are played on this recording, but more on the second version. Alternate changes are also indicated; this version gravitates toward those. On this recording the piano doubles the melody on the bridge. Both versions end with the two hits (13th measure of C), as a group vocal on the words "Cit Sac."
There a Concert Condensed Score for the faster version, from the "Chic Boom" album above right, showing added harmony notes.
Our lead sheet has some piano comping rhythms under the staff; some of them are played on this recording, but more on the second version. Alternate changes are also indicated; this version gravitates toward those. On this recording the piano doubles the melody on the bridge. Both versions end with the two hits (13th measure of C), as a group vocal on the words "Cit Sac."
There a Concert Condensed Score for the faster version, from the "Chic Boom" album above right, showing added harmony notes.
The title's meaning is unknown, but considering that it's said rhythmically at the end of the song it's likely just a couple of "scat" syllables. Cecil Payne and his cousin Marcus Belgrave also recorded together on Walter Booker's 1999 album "Bookie's Cookbook." "Scotch And Milk," the second of Cecil's four Delmark albums, is Lin Halliday's last recording. Halliday, who died in 2000, didn't record between 1959 and 1988. In 1993 Halliday and Eric Alexander co-led a quintet for the album "Stablemates."
- Recording: Cecil Payne - Chic Boom
- Recorded on: August 17-19, 2000
- Label: Delmark (DE 529)
- Concert Key: C
- Style: Swing (uptempo)
- Trumpet - Jim Rotondi
- Tenor Sax - Eric Alexander
- Bari Sax - Cecil Payne
- Piano - Harold Mabern
- Bass - John Webber
- Drums - Joe Farnsworth
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Video
- Frank Basile Quartet with Jeb Patton (p), Dan Weisselberg (b), and Pete Van Nostrand (ds) Live at Ornithology 10/8/22
A Concert Condensed Score is available for this later, even faster version. Eric Alexander adds a harmony part on the 9th through 12th measures of the A and C sections, while Cecil on baritone sax plays the melody an octave below the trumpet. The piano doesn't double the melody on the bridge as on the first recording.
"Chic Boom," recorded live in Chicago, was Cecil's last recording as a leader. He appeared on one more album after this, an unusual all-star session in 2005 released as "Bebop Process Excellence" led by fellow baritone saxophonist August-Wilhelm Scheer—better known as the founder of the software company IDS Scheer. Eric Alexander and Jim Rotondi played together on three other albums in 2000 including the former's "The Second Milestone."
Cecil Payne
December 14, 1922 – November 27, 2007
Baritonist extraordinaire, Cecil Payne is regarded as one of the most inimitable saxophonists of the bebop era. After receiving his first saxophone, an alto, when he was 13, Payne began gigging in local New York City groups. He made his record debut for Savoy in support of trombonist J. J. Johnson. Read more...