Terrain – Harold Land

Before this May recording session, Harold had already recorded within the last month with vocalist King Pleasure, pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter Shorty Rogers. After Harold's "West Coast Blues" session, in July he headed to NYC to record another date for Jazzland ("Harold Land In New York - Eastward Ho!"). Later that same month he was back in LA doing his own date for Blue Note ("Take Aim"). He also recorded with pianist Gerald Wiggins before the end of the year.

Transcriptions are now available for Harold Land's tenor sax solo and Joe Gordon's trumpet solo, both in B♭ and C editions. These solos are two choruses each. Land's solo [link] displays that tasty, swinging mix of bebop and blues vocabulary that characterizes his earlier style. His rhythms are particularly varied, with eighth-note, sixteenth-note, and triplet lines; his lines on the last two measures of the bridge are similar in both choruses, but with quite different rhythms. With this song's relatively simple harmonic structure, this is a great solo to start in exploring the Harold Land sound.

Gordon's solo [link] is full of bebop-style lines that wind around chromatically in enclosures and passing tones. He breaks it up with some simpler, Miles Davis-esque phrases especially toward the beginning and end. His rhythms are almost as varied as Land's. Check out especially the third and fourth measures of A2 and C in the first chorus: almost the same notes but very different phrasing.

Both solo transcriptions have detailed articulations for a close look at these soloists' styles.

Piano Comping Voicings
Pianist Michael Cochrane has provided one chorus of voicings using the solo chord progression (footballs). This set of voicings builds steadily over the course of the chorus. A1 is in a lower register, with voicings generally including the root and a half- or whole-step rub between the 3rd and 2nd, or 7th and 6th. A2's voicings are higher, not always with the root, with a combination of third- and fourth-based structures. The bridge has hits, which are given large voicings including the root. C starts even higher than A2 and descends. Also of note is the resolution between the second and third measures of A1 and A2: the third measures both have F on the top, but on A1 it is approached with G-flat and then A-flat on top while on A2 it is the reverse

These footballs show one way Michael hears the solo chord progression move from chord to chord. When studying them, your concentration can be focused solely on the chord progression and how chords move from one to another. Rhythmically, it's simple whole notes and half notes, or the basic harmonic rhythm of the chord progression of the solo section. The footballs are also annotated, showing the original chord symbol above the voicing, as well as any extensions below the voicing. The idea is that these voicings could be of varied uses to any level of pianist—a beginner pianist could play the music exactly as on the page and provide a supportive and harmonically hip sounding accompaniment to a soloist, while a more advanced pianist could use these same voicings with varied rhythms in the style of the recording. Ultimately, a pianist would be able to absorb how these voicings were derived from the chord symbols, and then be able to create their own.

Another great original composition from Harold Land's 1960 album "West Coast Blues!", Terrain shows off Wes Montgomery's skills as a sensitive accompanist. Playing alongside master pianist Barry Harris, Montgomery adds to the harmonic and rhythmic texture with a tasteful selection of voicings ranging from two to five notes. Guitarists of all abilities will find the resources in our guitar part to learn how to comp along with a piano while contributing to dynamics and orchestration.

"Inner Urge" is the third of Larry's five albums for the High Note label, produced by jazzleadsheets.com's Don Sickler. All but the fifth of these High Note albums feature a quartet with Yoron Israel on drums, plus different guests on each album. John Hicks and Santi Debriano also played on the first of these albums, 1998's "Monk, Trane, Miles, And Me." Both the latter album and "Inner Urge" have Santi Debriano compositions: Patience and Abra Cadabra, respectively.

Piano Comping Voicings
Pianist Michael Cochrane has provided one chorus of voicings using the solo chord progression (footballs). This set of voicings builds steadily over the course of the chorus. A1 is in a lower register, with voicings generally including the root and a half- or whole-step rub between the 3rd and 2nd, or 7th and 6th. A2's voicings are higher, not always with the root, with a combination of third- and fourth-based structures. The bridge has hits, which are given large voicings including the root. C starts even higher than A2 and descends. Also of note is the resolution between the second and third measures of A1 and A2: the third measures both have F on the top, but on A1 it is approached with G-flat and then A-flat on top while on A2 it is the reverse

These footballs show one way Michael hears the solo chord progression move from chord to chord. When studying them, your concentration can be focused solely on the chord progression and how chords move from one to another. Rhythmically, it's simple whole notes and half notes, or the basic harmonic rhythm of the chord progression of the solo section. The footballs are also annotated, showing the original chord symbol above the voicing, as well as any extensions below the voicing. The idea is that these voicings could be of varied uses to any level of pianist—a beginner pianist could play the music exactly as on the page and provide a supportive and harmonically hip sounding accompaniment to a soloist, while a more advanced pianist could use these same voicings with varied rhythms in the style of the recording. Ultimately, a pianist would be able to absorb how these voicings were derived from the chord symbols, and then be able to create their own.

Don Sickler: Larry loved the original Harold Land recording with Wes Montgomery, but for Larry's recording he wanted he and I (on trumpet) to play the melody in octaves, and at a slower medium swing tempo. At a slower tempo, I suggested a more open approach, emphasizing the rhythmic figures in the melody a little more, adding more stop and go elements to the rhythm section that I thought would work well with the slower tempo. If you also want to try my slower arrangement, melody players can use the same parts as Harold's arrangement. The Concert Condensed Score functions also as a C melody part and the rhythm section part.

Larry's only other request was that my arrangement for him would end on a tonic B♭m chord. I can also hear it ending on a dominant chord, as Harold did in his arrangement, so I've left the Concert Condensed Score ending on Harold's F7(♯9)chord, with Harold's melody ending intact. I've indicated the optional vamp ending that you'll hear we used for Larry's recorded arrangement, along with a footnote that leads you here where you will see how I adjusted the melody to end in B♭m.

Here are the last two beats of measure seven of letter C going into the B♭m chord ending that occurs on the third time through the vamp ending on Larry's recording: [music example]