River's Edge – Steve Johns

For a description of this song, click on the second album cover. A condensed score is available for this rather clever piano-less quartet arrangement. It starts with the head at a ballad tempo, with only one A section and one B section. The horns begin in octaves, with mostly half and whole notes in the bass; the B section goes into three-part counterpoint. The last three measures of B go to double-time swing, leading directly into the solos. The out head continues in a medium swing tempo, with the same horn arrangement over 2-feel on the A sections and 4-feel at B. The ending has the same form as on the Native Soul version. The changes in this arrangement are slightly different, notably holding out D♭maj7(♯11) for the last two measures without going to C♭maj7(♯11).

A laid-back medium-tempo song with a lyrical flowing melody. The basic key center is C minor but the changes go several other places; our lead sheets have no key signature. The form is AAB with 8-measure A sections and an 11-measure B section. The melody smooths out the sometimes unpredictable chord progression, which resolves in the B section to E major, C major, and F major. In the last three measures, the melody rises while the chords descend stepwise to Bmaj7(♯11) - written as C♭maj7 in our C lead sheets to keep flats rather than sharps in the melody.

Solos are on the entire form. The coda tags measures 5 through 8 of the B section two more times before taking the last phrase out.

Our lead sheet is based on this recording. Click on the first album cover for details about the earlier Bill Moring version.