I Don't Care – Ray Bryant

A minor blues with a melody that always stays in motion, I Don't Care will make an impressive addition to your blues repertoire.

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Recording: Cannonball Adderley - In The Land Of Hi-Fi
Recorded on: June 18, 1956
Label: EmArcy (MG36099)
Concert Key: C minor
Vocal Range: , to
Style: Swing (medium)

Cornet - Nat Adderley
Trumpet - Ernie Royal
Trombone - Bobby Byrne & Jimmy Cleveland
Alto Sax - Cannonball Adderley
Tenor Sax & Flute - Jerome Richardson
Baritone Sax - Danny Bank
Piano - Junior Mance
Bass - Keter Betts
Drums - Charles "Specs" Wright
Arranger - Ernie Wilkins

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Ray Bryant - I Don't Care

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The recording starts right on the melody, as you'll hear in our audio excerpt, and is played by flute and alto sax in octaves. The constantly-moving melody of this minor blues can be played in two ways: either as done on this recording, or as Ray recorded it in 1989, when he played the melody up an octave starting on the second beat of measure six, continuing in the upper octave until the end of the melody. In that recording, Ray repeats the melody before soloing. Ray liked to play the composition down a half step in B minor, the key of his 1989 recording.

This composition has also been recorded with lyrics by Tina May and is titled Talk To Me (see Historical Notes). In Tina's version, the melody is played up an octave starting at the second beat of measure six, like Ray's own recording. Ray plays piano on Tina's album.

The recording featured here for I Don't Care is the first recording of this composition. Ray Bryant's good friend and fellow pianist Junior Mance was Cannonball's pianist during this period, and he brought the composition to the recording session. Junior has always loved this composition and has recorded it several times on his own projects over the years. It remains a standard in in his performance repertory. Ray Bryant first recorded the composition himself in 1989, more than three decades after he composed it.

Vocalist Tina May wanted to create a lyric for this surprisingly challenging melody, which oscillates between a laid back and a fast-moving structure. Ray loved her lyrics, and Tina sang it on the "Ray Bryant Songbook" which she and Ray recorded in 2002. They recorded the composition in Tina's key of G minor. The lyric version is titled Talk To Me and is also available on jazzleadsheets.com with an accompaniment only version..

Ray Bryant

December 24, 1931 – June 2, 2011

Following performances in his native Philadelphia with guitarist Tiny Grimes and as house pianist at the Blue Note Club with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Miles Davis and others, Ray Bryant came to New York in the mid-1950s. His first jazz recording session in New York was with Toots Thielemans (August, 1955) for Columbia Records. That session led to his own trio sessions as well as sessions with vocalist Betty Carter for Epic Records in May and June ("Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant"). On August 5, 1955, Ray recorded with Miles Davis, and on December 2, 1955, with Sonny Rollins, both for Prestige Records. Read more...

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I Don't Care – Ray Bryant

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