Five songs by master pianist and composer Don Friedman are newly available on jazzleadsheets.com. For two of these, we have Don's solo piano arrangements available with exclusive recordings by another great pianist, Kenny Drew, Jr. Opus D'Amour is a dramatic, passionate song which Don recorded in solo, duo, and quartet settings. It works equally well as a bossa or a ballad; Kenny's recording is somewhere in between. The other one with an exclusive Kenny Drew, Jr., recording is Pas De Duo. This is a variation of another Don Friedman song, Minor Ballade, adding a bass countermelody which perfectly complements the melody to give the song even more emotional depth. An earlier version of the same song titled Ballade In C-sharp Minor is also now available; this one stays in its title key, without the key changes of the other two related songs.
Spring Song is fast yet lyrical, with a constantly unfolding form. Don recorded it in an exclusive duo version with then-15 year old bassist Daryl Johns; it's available both as audio and video. Finally, Autumn Colors is a simple modal song with a rhythmic bass line, which Don recorded on a quartet album with guitarist Peter Bernstein. This one has a solo piano arrangement as well, though without a recording.
In addition to these Don Friedman songs, we recently added Gigi Gryce's Wake Up! This rousing "rhythm changes" variation was recorded by Art Blakey as well as by Gigi, and we have the quintet arrangements for both versions. The horn arrangements are similar, but the rhythm section figures are quite different. Also, Harold Land's classic Terrain now has transcriptions of both Harold's tenor sax solo and Joe Gordon's trumpet solo. These are great solos to learn for hard bop vocabulary.