Da La Senidras – Bertha Hope

A medium-up swinger propelled by bouncy rhythmic hits at the beginning, this song packs a challenging chord progression into a 16-measure form. The melody helps to connect the changes, starting in a generally descending direction and quite simple at the end. Though there are a few II-V7s, the changes also do a fair bit of winding around in unpredictable stepwise movements and there is no key center. It's sort of a cyclical form, but Em7 to A7 in the last measure resolves to an unexpected B7 at the beginning of the next chorus.

The head changes on our lead sheet are taken from Bertha's solo piano arrangement. The solo changes are slightly simplified as they are on both the head and solos in the original trio recording. A couple of passing chords are left out in these simplified changes, in the 12th and 13th measures—getting rid of V-I cadences and arguably making the solo changes even more of a challenge.

The bass does not play a steady 2-feel or 4-feel on the head. Besides the hits at the beginning, the notes below the staff in the third and fourth measures, and the last three measures, reflect both bass and piano comping rhythms. In measures 9 through 13 on the recording, the bass rhythm is varied between 1-feel, 2-feel, and looser "broken time."

On this exclusive recording, pianist Glenn Zaleski plays Bertha Hope's solo piano arrangement. Click on Piano Corner for more details about the arrangement.

Glenn Zaleski's own version is a very different take on Da La Senidras. He interprets the melody more freely than the solo piano arrangement, as Bertha does on the trio recording, but very much in his own personal style. A particularly unusual technique he uses at the beginning of the head is playing the chords very short but sustaining them with only the pedal. He returns to this effect toward the end of his solo.