Earful – Ronnie Ball

This song covers a lot of ground in terms of both range and development of melodic ideas. It's based on the standard I'm Getting Sentimental Over You. Like most songs in the tradition of the Lennie Tristano school, the melody does not repeat as the changes do; the only large-scale repeat in the melody is the recapitulation of opening theme, transposed and developed further, in the last four measures. By contrast, this melody is full of repeated, developed sequences within almost every phrase. The themes of these sequences vary in length from two beats, as at the beginning, or a beat and a half, as in the 5th measure, to a full measure in the 3rd through 7th measures of the D section in rising arpeggiated figures. These sequences exhibit a lot of rhythmic invention, right from the beginning where the first sequence begins with a 2-beat pickup. The beginning of the B section features a sequence within a sequence: a 2-beat pattern is repeated a whole step lower, and the whole 4-beat shape is transposed up a fifth starting on the second beat of the next measure. This sequence is over a reharmonization of the original I'm Getting Sentimental Over You changes, with a chord on each beat in a descending direction.

Our lead sheets and parts include the shout chorus, a simple but subtly inventive "riff" 16 measures long. On the recording it is played at the start of the last chorus, with a bass solo on the bridge, and the last 12 measures of the out melody (again shown on our lead sheets and parts) start like the B section and switch to the fifth measure of the D section, with an unexpected modulation to G major at the end. On the lead sheets and parts, the shout chorus appears on the first half of a full set of solo changes. In the 15th measure of the solo form, we put A♭m6 in parentheses on beat 3; this chord is played on the solos, but the shout chorus melody has C♮ here instead of C♭. A♭6 or A♭7 should be played at this place in the shout chorus.

On the recording, the melody starts with the two tenor saxes in unison. They harmonize in sixths in parts of the B section, and in thirds for most of the C section and the end of the D section; a few notes in the D section are harmonized to outline the changes. The shout chorus is mostly harmonized in thirds. The melody goes into the tenor sax's altissimo register; tenor saxophonists playing the melody without the 2nd part should take the altissimo passages down an octave, for example in the B section from beat 2 of the second measure through the fourth measure. Our B♭ trumpet lead sheet is written to sound in the same octave as the tenor lead sheet, except from measures 2 to 4 of the C section where it is an octave above. The C bass clef lead sheet is written an octave below the trumpet lead sheet.