Love Remains – Pamela Baskin-Watson & Robert Watson

Though Love Remains also works as a ballad, the slow bolero groove and bass ostinato used on the recording really accentuate this song's soulful mood. The melody has a bittersweet quality especially in the position of longer notes within their accompanying chords: a lot of 7ths and 9ths, ending the A section with an 11th (C on a G minor chord). Though the opening tonic chord is Gm9 rather than Gm6, a minor 6th sound is established as the changes begin by alternating Gm9 with C6. This song has essentially a 64-measure AABC form; the two halves of the bridge start similarly and are indicated as B1 and B2.

Our lead sheet shows the rhythm section intro from this recording, which establishes the bass vamp for four measures before the melody. The ending vamps the last melody phrase; on this original recording it is tagged three times, without the open repeat indicated in the lead sheet.

Because this song has so many long melody notes, it's a great vehicle for expressive interpretation and embellishment. Check out how Bobby Watson plays the melody on this recording for inspiration in this regard. Though he varies many melody phrases, one note is consistently different from how it's shown in our lead sheet: in the 10th measure of A he starts the phrase on beat 3 with G rather than A. We show A as that's how it is in our original manuscript.

This later quartet version is similar to the original "Love Remains" recording, but is only one chorus long without solos. The intro here is solo piano; the first A section is alto/piano duo until the bass and drums come in on the 12th measure. The coda is extended as an open vamp as shown in our lead sheet.

Bobby changes another note of the melody in this version: B♭ instead of D in the second half of the 12th measure of A. The equivalent measure of the C section has a D on the second half as written.