Sweet Audrey – Shelley Carrol

A lyrical bossa in a classic modern post-bop style, Sweet Audrey makes a complete statement in a brief, concise 14-measure form. The key center is not always clear: the melody starts in A major, but goes to A minor after the first eight measures, and our lead sheets show no key signature. The chord progression is cyclical, with Dm7 to G7 at the end leading back in a bVII-I cadence to A major at the beginning of the next chorus.

There is a rhythm section intro, vamping on B♭maj7♭5 with rhythmic piano and bass figures. This vamp returns as an interlude to start the first solo; both here and in the intro it is eight measures long (shown as four measures with a repeat). The vamp returns after the out melody, extended as an open repeat, with a coda on cue consisting of fermatas on the first two chords of the melody chorus. On the recording Shelley Carrol continues soloing over the ending vamp until this cue.

The melody on the recording is played twice in and once out. On the repeat of the in melody Shelley plays the first six measures an octave higher, going into the tenor sax’s altissimo register on the third and fourth measures. The coda melody is also played in this register, notated an octave lower in our B♭ tenor sax lead sheet and indicated “8va on recording”. Because he switches to the original octave in the seventh measure of the head, the melody is shown in a lower octave here on the B♭ trumpet and E♭ lead sheets.