Not Far At All – Valery Ponomarev

Stop-time call and response between the melody and rhythm section is a staple of the Jazz Messengers sound. Not Far At All is a medium-up example, in a classic Messengers style. The melody develops a simple blues-scale riff over the changes, telling an elegant little story punctuated by rhythm section hits in a concise 16-measure form. Though blues-like, this song is not quite a blues; the 7th through 11th measures have a long circle of fourths from D7 to F7 using F♯dim7 to get back to the tonic. The last two chord hits in the head, B♭7sus and C7sus, are preserved as the final resolution in the solos (with the tonic chord Cm7) for a slightly unexpected cadence.

There is a four-measure drum intro that sets up the first melody break. On the recording, Art Blakey plays time on the ride cymbal through most of the breaks; as shown in our lead sheet, these certainly work as clean breaks in the drums instead. There is a coda that tags the last melody phrase and hits, leading to a final A7♭5(♭9) chord. This final chord is the only place where the horns are harmonized on this sextet recording; on the head they play unison and octaves.