Mellow Side – Al Cohn
Aptly titled, this medium-tempo song has a classic smooth "cool jazz" sound. Al Cohn's original recording has a four-horn arrangement but this song works just as well in a smaller group setting, as shown by our exclusive trio recording by Al's son Joe Cohn.
- Recording: Al Cohn - The Sax Section
- Recorded on: June 28, 1956
- Label: Epic (LN 3278)
- Concert Key: C
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Tenor Sax - Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Eddie Wasserman
- Bari Sax - Sol Schlinger
- Piano - Hank Jones
- Bass - Milt Hinton
- Drums - Don Lamond
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Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
Click on the second album cover for a description of this song. Our lead sheet is a condensed version of the original four-horn arrangement. The horns are voiced almost throughout the head; all except the lead tenor sax join the rhythm section hits in the intro and second half of C. The countermelody at D is also voiced behind the lead tenor, while the three tenors play the last three measures of the melody in unison with the baritone doubling the bass line.
After a solo chorus split between Al Cohn and Zoot Sims (the latter with a four-measure ensemble sendoff), there is one final chorus in the key of D♭. This chorus is mostly arranged, with a piano solo in the second eight measures; the last four measures are based on the second half of the intro.
After a solo chorus split between Al Cohn and Zoot Sims (the latter with a four-measure ensemble sendoff), there is one final chorus in the key of D♭. This chorus is mostly arranged, with a piano solo in the second eight measures; the last four measures are based on the second half of the intro.
This album consists of three sessions with different instrumentations of woodwinds with rhythm section: besides this instrumentation of three tenor saxes and baritone sax, another session features a standard big band sax section (two altos, two tenors and bari) while the third showcases several different combinations of flutes, clarinets, and oboe. A year and four days before this particular "Sax Section" session, Al Cohn recorded with another three-tenor lineup (though with no baritone) on the RCA Victor album "The Brothers." This featured Al alongside tenormen Bill Perkins and Richie Kamuca, with guitarists Barry Galbraith and Jimmy Raney each on one of the two sessions.
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- Recording: Joe Cohn - The Cohn Legacy
- Recorded on: June 9, 2015
- Label: jazzleadsheets.com (JLS 1051)
- Concert Key: C
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Guitar - Joe Cohn
- Bass - Ben Rubens
- Drums - Ben Zweig
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
Like many Al Cohn songs, this one is certainly on the mellow side with its smooth melody and light swing. Many of the melody phrases are in a pentatonic scale for a simple, slightly "folksy" sound. The form is ABCD with no repeated sections, with a break for the first solo at the end of the D section which extends it to 10 measures (the other sections are eight measures); the solo form is an even 32 measures. The changes are relatively diatonic with some tasteful passing chords. The B section goes to F major and toward E♭ major (though this chord is only played in the solo changes). The D section begins with a chromatic "walk down" from F♯m7(b5); in the seventh measure there is a similar descending progression.
There is an eight-measure intro with rhythm section hits; the first half of this intro is based on similar hits in the second half of the C section. Our lead sheet shows mostly the top line of the four-horn arrangement from the original recording; it also includes a couple of chromatically descending countermelodies in the 3rd and 4th measures of A and the beginning of D, taken from the second part; these fill in around the longer notes of the melody. The original recording has a different out melody based on the intro, instead of going back to the head; for the lead sheet, we've added a rhythmic ending that works with the head. We've also included an optional interlude between or after solos, which is not played on Joe Cohn's recording; it's the same as the 7th and 8th measures of D plus a 2-measure break for the next soloist (or drums, to lead back to the out head).
There is an eight-measure intro with rhythm section hits; the first half of this intro is based on similar hits in the second half of the C section. Our lead sheet shows mostly the top line of the four-horn arrangement from the original recording; it also includes a couple of chromatically descending countermelodies in the 3rd and 4th measures of A and the beginning of D, taken from the second part; these fill in around the longer notes of the melody. The original recording has a different out melody based on the intro, instead of going back to the head; for the lead sheet, we've added a rhythmic ending that works with the head. We've also included an optional interlude between or after solos, which is not played on Joe Cohn's recording; it's the same as the 7th and 8th measures of D plus a 2-measure break for the next soloist (or drums, to lead back to the out head).
Saxophonist Al Cohn was a familiar figure at the Second Floor Music/jazzleadsheets.com rehearsal studio in midtown Manhattan. Many of Uptown Records' sessions were rehearsed there in the 1980s, since Don Sickler was often arranger and session producer. After Al's death, Twenty-Eighth Street/Second Floor Music, as publisher, became involved with his children. Al's son Joe Cohn also rehearsed often at the studio, and Don and Joe talked about Al's legacy. In 2015, they gathered SFM interns Ben Rubens and Ben Zweig, students at Manhattan School of Music at the time, for a session at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, with Joe playing his father's music.
Joe Cohn combines the roles of melody and comping on this recording, especially in the intro where he plays the chord hits with the bass and drums which fill in around the melody. He voices most of the longer notes of the melody; some of his voicings resemble those of the original four-horn arrangement. He also plays the countermelodies in the 3rd and 4th measures of the A section and the beginning of the D section.
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Al Cohn
November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988
Al Cohn, born in Brooklyn, NY, went on to become not only a brilliant jazz tenor saxophonist, but an arranger, leader and sideman par excellence. From the "Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection," East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania website: "His career in jazz spanned more than 45 years. He performed with the bands of Henry Jerome, Joe Marsala, Georgie Auld, Alvino Rey, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Elliot Lawrence and others. Many of the arrangements used by these bands were written by Al, and he also arranged for Gerry Mulligan, Quincy Jones, Terry Gibbs and Jimmy Rushing. Read more...
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