News

• 50th anniversary titles & more

  This week marks the 50th anniversary of two great recording sessions for Riverside Records. On January 11, 1960, Julian Priester recorded his “Keep Swingin’” album, and on January 13 and 14, Bobby Timmons recorded his trio date “This Here Is Bobby Timmons.” These 50th anniversary sessions were also each artist’s first album as leaders.

  From Julian Priester:
  The End (plus Julian’s trombone solo)
  Under The Surface (plus Julian’s trombone solo)
  I proofread the two Julian Priester arrangements with one of my combos at Columbia University this last semester, then performed both at the winter concert. The combo used the same instrumentation as the recording, except tenor sax played the melody and trombone played the second part. During the semester I had to sub for both tenor and trombone, on trumpet, so we also got to hear Trumpet/Tenor-2nd part and Trumpet/Trombone-2nd part. The arrangements work great with any instrumentation, or with just the melody part in a quartet format.

  I get a lot of requests from trombonists for transcribed solos. Julian Priester is not only a great composer, he’s also a great trombone soloist. As I mention in my description notes, Julian’s The End composition is a challenging form, as the rhythm switches between Latin and swing at initially unpredictable times. As you’ll see and hear, when Julian solos the transitions really make sense.

  From Bobby Timmons:
  Joy Ride
  Bobby Timmons was a very versatile composer at age 24, when he recorded the album “This Here Is Bobby Timmons.” He’d already written and recorded his two major hits in his own fully developed funky-churchy language, at 23. This trio date, his first as a leader, comes approximately one year and three months after Bobby first recorded Moanin’ with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, and a little less than three months after he recorded his second hit, This Here, as a member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Jazzleadsheets.com will post This Here shortly, but for now, Joy Ride shows you Bobby is very much at home writing challenging boppish compositions.

  Additionally, the print arrangement of Moanin’ is available from Second Floor Music with full score and alternate parts. Order online at MusicDispatch.com.

  On top of these anniversary titles, we also have more Carl Perkins, from the Curtis Counce album “Carl’s Blues”: Carl is another “groove master,” and Carl’s Blues is in a great tempo (medium slow) and key (A-flat) that we all need to practice.

  In December 2009, we posted two arrangements of Gerald Wiggins’s A Fifth For Frank. One was from a Cal Tjader recording, with Gerald on piano. Gerald’s A Light Groove also comes from this album, it and gives you a different kind of “groove.”

  Let’s all Keep Swingin’!
  --Don Sickler

• 5 new titles, with alto sax, trumpet and piano solos

  Nica’s Tempo is a significant Gigi Gryce composition that he revisited several times during his career. We’ve posted lead sheets for two different quintet arrangements by Gigi that were recorded almost 5 years apart, and I’ve explained some important differences between the two. Melody and second parts are available for both. Also, Gryce’s and Farmer’s solos are available, both great studies in improvisation. Trumpet players, especially newer players, should get a lot out of studying both the Art Farmer and Gigi Gryce (B-flat edition) solos. Alto solos transposed to B-flat generally don’t go too high, giving trumpet soloists who haven’t yet developed their high range new ideas in a lower register.

  Elmo Hope was one of Monk’s favorite composers. It’s fascinating to follow his compositional history since his style of writing changed over the years. I feel it’s important to start with his earlier works, like Happy Hour. We’ll post a few more over the next weeks, then get into the later period.

  January 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Bobby Timmons’s recording career as a leader. Although we’re starting with a 1961 session here, with Easy Does It, we’ll get to his 1960 gems to commemorate their 50th anniversary later this year. Check out our first transcribed piano solo, Bobby’s six piano choruses on five pages. Timmons’ solos should be available for study. He’s always so full of energy, movement and swing. We’ve really made an attempt to indicate his articulations, which are so much a part of his playing. He can create a great funky feel, or just swing like hell. Either way, he doesn’t hold back, he’s always generating his own type of energy. He exhibits the qualities of a true artist: he always sounds like “Bobby Timmons.”

  We’ve already given you two of Ray Bryant’s Latin-jazz classics: Cubano Chant and Cuban Fantasy, but we also want you to hear Reflection. We’ve posted two different recordings, one by Ray himself, and one by his friend, pianist Phineas Newborn. Fun to compare the two approaches.

  Tina Brooks had the soulful trumpeter Johnny Coles at his side for “The Waiting Game” session, and I’m sure Johnny Coles loved this one. Dhyana is soulful and definitely swinging.

  Thanks for visiting jazzleadsheets.com!
  --Don Sickler

• 2 solos and a new Harold Land composition

  In the week before Christmas, check out two new transcribed solos for one of Gigi Gryce’s most popular compositions, Social Call. Learn Art Farmer’s trumpet solo and Gigi’s alto sax solo. C treble clef editions for both, as well as E-flat and B-flat for Gigi’s solo, and B-flat for Art’s. This is the first Gigi Gryce solo on jazzleadsheets.com. More coming soon. The lead sheets for Social Call are also available.

  Also, Harold Land’s Landslide, from the Curtis Counce album of the same name. Now three tracks from that album are available on jazzleadsheets.com, including Mia by Carl Perkins and A Fifth For Frank by Gerald Wiggins. Great trumpet/tenor charts. Make your fingers work for the holidays!

• West Coast and East Coast

  West Coast bassist Curtis Counce’s album “Landslide” is represented by two compositions, one by pianist Carl Perkins, Mia, and one by pianist Gerald Wiggins, A Fifth For Frank. The album, if you don’t have it, is available from the Concord Music Group (also individual tracks). Plus, we’ve posted a second version of the Wiggins title, as recorded by Cal Tjader (also available from Concord). As Don points out in the description, comparing and playing the two versions is very instructive. Landslide by Harold Land, from the same album, will be up next.

  Also new to jazzleadsheets.com is composer/pianist Michael Cochrane from the NY/NJ area. Michael has played and recorded with Tom Harrell, Jack Walrath, Michael Brecker and many others. His composition Waltz No. 1 was recorded in a quintet format with Tom Harrell and Bob Malach. Flutist/lyricist Cheryl Pyle added a lyric, resulting in the beautiful Two Reflect As One, recorded by vocalist Gloria Cooper.

• Two new composers plus one new Kenny Drew Jr. ballad

  Composer/pianist Kirk Nurock’s first contribution is a vocal ballad set to poetry by Emily Dickinson, Will There Really Be A Morning? The first released recording, by Nurock’s Quartet and vocalist Theo Bleckmann, is available only on jazzleadsheets.com.

  Austrian pianist and composer Fritz Pauer and his first composition here, Passos, recorded by Art Farmer on his Mirage album. Art Farmer’s transcribed trumpet solo is also available, and the complete track is on iTunes. What a pleasure to hear and see how Art navigates the changes!

  And one beautiful new ballad by Kenny Drew, Jr., Dedication. Its theme is taken from the first three notes of Serenity, his father’s composition.

• Two new composers this week

  Pianist Kenny Drew, Jr., an inventive virtuoso with a modern sound and style, joins the site with Third Phase, and trumpeter Bill Hardman, one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 1950s and ’60s, offers a groovy Latin piece, Jo-B.

  Two more great Ronnie Mathews titles from his Doin’ The Thang recording, Orient and Let's Get Down.

  Another addition in our two versions series (like Filide last week): Capers, a Tom McIntosh composition with two versions, recorded by two different trumpet players in the same year. Bill Hardman with Sonny Red on alto sax recorded it first, then Blue Mitchell with Junior Cook on tenor.

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

  New this week: This week we start something new. Two different arrangements of the same composition. Scroll down to see “Description” and “Historical Notes” for each recording as well as to hear a sample of each.

  Ray Draper - Filide
  Two different Ray Draper arrangements. One is a quintet recording with John Coltrane. The second is a piano-less Max Roach quintet recording (3 horns). Comparing them makes for a very interesting study: how the melody is phrased differently, how the solo sections differ, the different intro and endings, etc.

  Roland Alexander - Pleasure Bent
  The Junior Cook recording is available as a single download, but the Roland Alexander recording is only available as an “album” download. There are four great Ronnie Mathews compositions also available on that album download (from iTunes or Concord Music Group), so we’re adding them to jazzleadsheets.com over the next two weeks.
  Get the whole album at Concord Music Group: Purchase CD

  Ronnie Mathews - two compositions: Ichi-Ban and The Thang
  An original, a great performer and interpreter, and two of his challenging and fun compositions. More coming in the next few weeks.

  Gene Ammons - Tastin’ The Jug
  The first title played at the session, after a recording gap of 7 years, a great blues head.

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