No More Sacrifices – Justin Robinson

A calypso song with Justin Robinson's signature simplicity. No More Sacrifices is dominated by a rhythmic bass pedal point, which starts the intro and continues throughout the entire song. This F pedal figure accentuates beats 3 and 4 of each measure; the bass never plays either the tonic (B♭) or the downbeat of any measure until the very end. Complementing the floating quality of the pedal point, the melody is all whole notes and double whole notes, often shifting around in half and whole steps with the changes. The form is 16 measures long, but with the last four measures slightly different between the two repeats of the head; this is also the form for the solos.

The first page of our lead sheets shows the intro from the recording. At the beginning, the bass plays a slightly different figure from the head. While the head figure is a four-measure pattern—three measures of the same rhythm and one measure with an extra note—the bass starts with a one-measure pattern without the extra note. After eight measures of solo bass, the piano and drums enter, with piano soloing for 16 measures. There are then eight measures of simple rhythmic piano chords over the same bass pattern; lastly, the bass line switches to the head figure for eight measures before the head starts, doubled by the piano left hand while the right hand holds out two-measure chords.

Our audio excerpt begins with the rhythmic piano chords 16 measures before the beginning of the head, labeled as "2" in our lead sheets.

Our C treble and bass clef lead sheets show Stephen Scott's piano voicings from the recording for the last 16 measures of the intro. These chords alternate B♭7 and E♭7, the first two chords of the head.

All of our lead sheets contain the two-horn voicings from the recording, which are in thirds for the whole head. The piano doubles the melody chordally throughout; if you play this song in a one-horn setting, the piano voicings will contain the second part harmony notes.