Strivin' – Herbie Nichols

A romantic song, with a soaring, lyrical melody throughout—very open for expressive interpretation. Though mostly tonal in F major, Strivin’ certainly has that harmonic intrigue that defines Herbie Nichols’ style. The shift from E7 in the second half of the first measure to A♭7 in the next measure is a good example. The bridge of this 32-measure AABC song alternates A minor and C major.

For his solo piano recording, Michael Cochrane starts with a four-measure pedal point intro and states the melody quite clearly at a slow swing tempo. Under the melody, he reharmonizes some of the changes, mostly with tritone substitutions and chromatic passing chords. Cochrane replaces the E7 in the first measure with a beat each of Em7 and A7; the fourth measure has Am7 to D7 instead of F to Gm7 for a smoother transition to A♭m7-D♭7 (tritone sub for G7) in the fifth measure.

To hear this song with the original changes, click on Historical Notes for a clip of Frank Kimbrough playing the melody at the Herbie Nichols Piano Summit.