This sunny samba features a tuneful melody and an upbeat groove that brings to mind images of the beach in the summer. It's a simple composition to learn, making it a great choice for beginner combos. This arrangement features guitar on the melody with tenor sax playing the second part, although Freddie Redd recorded it himself two years later and featured trombone, alto sax, and tenor sax. So Samba is a success with any instrumentation, so we're offering the leadsheet and second part in all editions, allowing you to create whatever arrangement you like!
Note that we're now creating condensed scores as separate editions for quintet versions. They're especially valuable for drummers and bass players because counter melodies and hits are notated. We're able to make the C treble clef lead sheet less complicated, as a result.
The 25th anniversary of the December 22, 1988, recording session prompted us to post So Samba. It's a great opportunity to hear the wonderful Hank Jones again, and to listen to the elegant tastefulness of drummer Ben Riley. As well as to enjoy composer Freddie Redd's optimistic music.
If you're wondering why composer/pianist Freddie Redd was not the first to record So, Samba!, Don Sickler recalls: "Uptown Records hired Freddie for two leader recording sessions in January, 1985. I was lucky enough to get to work on the project. Freddie came up from Washington, D.C. with a lot of original music. In fact, Freddie had so many great original compositions that it became hard to choose material for the sessions. At that time the release medium was LP, so we could only use about 40 minutes of music. So, Samba! was not picked for either of these sessions, so when guitarist Mark Elf approached me for material for his 1988 session, I suggested it. Mark loved it! Freddie loved that pianist extraordinaire Hank Jones was on Elf's recording."
