Fly With The Wind – Eli "Lucky" Thompson
A quiet, delicate "rhythm changes" head with lopsided rhythms played by the whole band.
- Recording: Lucky Thompson - Lucky Strikes
- Recorded on: September 15, 1964
- Label: Prestige (PR 7365)
- Concert Key: C
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (uptempo)
- Tenor Sax - Lucky Thompson
- Piano - Hank Jones
- Bass - Richard Davis
- Drums - Connie Kay
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
This uptempo song has an aerial quality due to its light touch and over-the-barline phrasing. It's essentially a "rhythm changes" song, with slightly altered changes in the head. The rhythms of the melody are lopsided and irregular, with phrases variously starting on or emphasizing beats 2, 4, and the "and" of 1. In the A and C sections the rhythm section plays all the rhythms with the melody. The first A section has the bass in octaves with the melody, while the second A section and the second half of the C section add piano chords and a different bass line in the same rhythm. The changes here have several tritone substitutions. In the bridge the rhythm section plays a 4-feel until the last two measures; the bridge changes on the head have II-V7s to F and G but without the tonics of those key centers. Solos are on standard "rhythm changes" but with the bridge going to the IV (F), the classic Honeysuckle Rose bridge.
On the recording, the head is played quite softly, giving this song a delicate quality that we feel is very important. There is no intro and no coda; the out head ends abruptly.
A bass part is also available; pianists should read the C lead sheet, which has piano comping rhythms as played on the recording. Drummers have the option of using the bass part or the C lead sheet.
On the recording, the head is played quite softly, giving this song a delicate quality that we feel is very important. There is no intro and no coda; the out head ends abruptly.
A bass part is also available; pianists should read the C lead sheet, which has piano comping rhythms as played on the recording. Drummers have the option of using the bass part or the C lead sheet.
"Lucky Strikes" was recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs.
For more from this album, check out Prey-Loot. "Lucky Strikes" is actually the title of two different Lucky Thompson albums; the other one contains an octet and a nonet session recorded in Paris in 1956.
Lucky first recorded with Hank Jones twenty years before this Prestige session, in 1944 with Hot Lips Page. They also recorded together in the '50s under the leadership of Milt Jackson, Jimmy Cleveland, and Quincy Jones. Hank played on two other Lucky Thompson albums: "Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford, Vol. 1" in 1956, and "Lucky Thompson Plays Jerome Kern And No More" in 1963. That latter album, a quartet with Wendell Marshall and Dave Bailey, contains eight Jerome Kern songs and one Thompson original, a ballad, titled No More.
For more from this album, check out Prey-Loot. "Lucky Strikes" is actually the title of two different Lucky Thompson albums; the other one contains an octet and a nonet session recorded in Paris in 1956.
Lucky first recorded with Hank Jones twenty years before this Prestige session, in 1944 with Hot Lips Page. They also recorded together in the '50s under the leadership of Milt Jackson, Jimmy Cleveland, and Quincy Jones. Hank played on two other Lucky Thompson albums: "Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford, Vol. 1" in 1956, and "Lucky Thompson Plays Jerome Kern And No More" in 1963. That latter album, a quartet with Wendell Marshall and Dave Bailey, contains eight Jerome Kern songs and one Thompson original, a ballad, titled No More.
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Eli "Lucky" Thompson
June 16, 1923 – July 30, 2005
Saxophonist Lucky Thompson is one of the great treasures of jazz. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He played in local groups with Hank Jones, Sonny Stitt and others. In August, 1943, when he was 19, he left Detroit with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra, eventually arriving in New York City. Still a teenager, his first recording date was with Hot Lips Page on March 18, 1944. Later in 1944 he started recording with both Lucky Millinder and Count Basie. Read more...
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