News

• The bass lines came first!

  Today, June 3, is the recording anniversary of two important jazz standards.
  When Kenny Dorham suggested to Joe Henderson that each write a bass line first, then create a melody on top of it, for Joe Henderson's "Page One" album, they had no idea that these bass lines would ignite the creation of two important jazz standards: Kenny Dorham's Blue Bossa and Joe Henderson's Recorda-Me. Get the whole story on the Historical Notes pages for The Forgotten Line and Blue Bossa.

• You 'N' Me, an Al Cohn classic!

  You 'N' Me! We're starting our June recording anniversary celebration off this year with Al Cohn's original recording (with Zoot Sims) of this great composition. We hope you'll also check out our June 1-7 video which starts with Al's The Note, which is from the same album.

• More late May recording anniversaries

  We're continuing to add songs to celebrate their recording anniversaries. Cecil McBee's Paradox is now available; it was recorded on May 29, 1980 on McCoy Tyner's album "Quartets 4X4." This was Cecil's and McCoy's first recording together; the song is well suited to McCoy's signature style.

  Blue, by Marc Seales, has two anniversaries in late May. Marc played it on his album "American Songs, Vol. 2", recorded on May 26 and 27, 2012. On May 31, 2019, he performed this song in his New Stories trio, with guest Ernie Watts, at the Ballard Jazz Festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 1999 album "Speakin' Out." We have three quartet condensed scores that reflect the 1999, 2012, and 2019 recordings.

• Ryan Kisor's The Dream

  More from Ryan's album "The Dream": his Bert's Blues, a fun blues head, and Minor Ordeal, inspired by the trumpeter Booker Little.

• Clifford Brown's LaRue

  Try your own interpretation of Clifford Brown's moving song written for his soon-to-be wife, LaRue. First recorded by Kenny Dorham, it's a inspiring and emotional work. LaRue's story of its beginnings is recounted by Don Sickler.

• More Hank Mobley, always fun to play!

  Check out a few of Hank's songs from his "Far Away Lands" recording to liven up your gigs this summer.
  A Dab Of This And That
  The Hippity Hop
  No Argument

• May 19, Bass Day!

  Don Sickler: May 19 is an important "Bass Day" as you will see. This year, first of all, it's Cecil McBee's 89th birthday: please check out five of his marvelous compositions from his "Unspoken" album.

  On May 19, 1957, Paul Chambers recorded his Paul Chambers Quintet album: bass players will now have the opportunity to check out his complete bass lines PLUS bass solos from this recording of his compositions Beauteous and The Hand Of Love.

  I did a quick look to see what's already up on jazzleadsheets from May 19, and immediately found bassist Percy Heath on "When Farmer Met Gryce", and bassist Al McKibbon with composer/pianist Freddie Redd.

  Then I started looking for recordings done on May 19 in my publishing files along with recordings that were made by Rudy Van Gelder in his Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs studios as well as his remote recordings. I'm now determined to create a separate Bassist May 19 page. So far my research has found the following bassists recording music we are involved with on May 19: More Percy Heath, Charles Mingus, Tommy Potter, more Paul Chambers, Gene Taylor, Ron Carter, George Duvivier, Bob Cranshaw, Steve Swallow, George Mraz, Jimmy Woode and the list goes on.

  Also, check out Daryl Johns' amazing "Tribute to Paul Chambers," multiple bass arrangements by myself, recorded by Rudy in Englewood Cliffs, with a fun video of Daryl as he recorded Tempo di Max, at a "Max Roach" tempo.

• New Stories 30th Anniversary!

  Recording sessions on April 25, 26 and 27, 1994, created the first album for the important new piano trio New Stories. We are celebrating this 30th anniversary recording by releasing all 7 of the groups' original compositions from this first New Stories album.

  
  Don Sickler: The group's pianist, Marc Seales, I first heard about from ravings from tenor saxophonist Don Lanphere, which was sometime around the time Marc did his first album with Don (summer of 1982,) My first recollection of being involved with bassist Doug Miller and drummer John Bishop was when the whole trio was together on Don Lanphere's co-leader recording "Lopin'" (1992). We will bring more music from these talented artist-composers in the near future. For now, you can enjoy our Piano Trio editions from this album.

• The Highest Mountain

  April 18, 2024, was the 49th recording anniversary for Clifford Jordan's live album "The Highest Mountain." We figured now is a good time to bring the title track The Highest Mountain to jazzleadsheets.com. This is Clifford Jordan's most recorded composition, with good reason - it's a song you can really have fun with. Clifford played it in many different settings and arrangements; we are first making lead sheets available based on the quartet version from "The Highest Mountain" album. We also have a transcription of Clifford's tenor sax solo, making this a great opportunity to explore his unique and influential style. Arrangements from other recordings of this song are coming soon.

• Mapenzi Anniversary plus Charles McPherson

  April 14 is the birthday of two of our great artist composers, tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons and trombonist Steve Davis. It's also the recording anniversary of tenor saxophonist Harold Land's 1977 "Mapenzi" album so we're putting up three more of his classic compositions from that album, Mapenzi, Tres Senderos and Inner Voice. The previous year (1976), while touring Japan, Charles McPherson recorded his great "Live In Tokyo" album with a stellar rhythm section which included pianist Barry Harris. Two from that album, Orient Express and Charles' solo transcription from Tokyo Blue, are also newly available.

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