King Of The Hill – Eric Alexander & Jim Rotondi

With its rhythmic kick and slightly angular melody, King Of The Hill is written in a modern post-bop style. This minor-key medium-up swinger has a 48-measure form: 16 measures each of A, B, and C identical to A. The melody combines pentatonic and diminished scale vocabulary, over relatively diatonic changes in F minor on the A and C sections and E♭ minor in the bridge. There are a few unexpected harmonies including several ♭VI7-I cadences (D♭7-Fm7, for example, in the eighth and ninth measures).

The middle of the bridge (5th through 12th measures) is open for a piano solo—the changes are included in all parts so horn soloists can play here instead. There are rhythm section figures throughout the A and C sections. The bridge starts with a Latin groove, with hits in a "bossa clave" pattern, for four measures before going to 4-feel swing for the piano solo fill.

The intro vamps the first two chords, though slightly different with Fm(maj7) at the beginning instead of Fm7. The top note of the piano voicings is shown in all parts. Solos are on a simplified version of the head changes; on the recording the rhythm section sometimes implies the full changes from the head, but the soloists often smooth out the A section changes into a modal F minor. For the ending, the last note of the melody is held out, and the horns play the melody phrase from the 3rd through 5th measures of the head slowly, rubato and conducted, into a final chord.

About the arrangement: We have a Concert Condensed Score and second parts for the two-horn arrangement. The horns begin the melody in unison but harmonize in sixths starting in the third measure. Other parts of the melody have different intervals of horn voicings, including fourths in the 9th and 10th measure and thirds at the start of the bridge. On the recording, the horns switch roles on the last measure of the bridge: tenor sax melody above the trumpet harmony. We have decided to keep the harmony notes in the second parts instead of switching for just this one measure.