Far Side – Tony Reedus

With its brief theme and open-ended solos, this uptempo "burner" can be taken in some experimental directions—to the far side, if you will. The openness starts even before the solo section, with drum and piano solos built into the head. This head is based on four measures of rhythm section hits, played twice with a four-measure drum solo in between. The beginning of the head has a scrambling eighth-note melody over the hits, with a variation the second time leading into 4-feel for 16 measures of piano solo. After this the hits are played twice again, with another four measures of drums between, but this time with the melody in rhythmic unison; the last note is held at the end for four more measures to make an even 16-measure section.

There is no written solo section; on the recording the soloists improvise in time over 4-feel without a set chord progression—"time, no changes." The last 16 measures of the head are played as an interlude between the solos; this really holds the otherwise wide-open song together.

Our lead sheets show a D minor key signature, as this tonality is somewhat suggested by the melody. The chords in the head, however, are rather complex and don't imply a key center. These chords fly by at this tempo and are a little hard to hear on the recording. Because the solos have no changes, our B♭ and E♭ lead sheets don't show the chord symbols on the head.