Thang – Roy Hargrove

This dramatic uptempo song kicks off with a two-measure rhythmic figure, with both the melody and harmony rising into four measures of 4-feel swing on Cm7 with a single long melody note. This first phrase is answered by a more complex melodic line for two measures, descending to four more measures of swing with one melody note, this time with two chords for two measures each. These phrases make up the 12-measure A section, which has no dominant chords and no key center. The melody connects the changes, which generally rise and fall stepwise, using pentatonic scales: A♭ major/F minor in the first phrase, and F♯ major/E♭ minor in the second; the latter connects F♯maj7, Emaj7, and Dmaj7. Many of the important melody notes are the upper extensions of the chords, such as F (the 11th) on the C minor chord.

The eight-measure B section begins with a quite unusual rhythmic structure: a syncopated hemiola sequence which transposes a II-V7-I passage in B♭, B, and A♭, for five beats each. The meter remains 4/4 here. To fill out four measures of 4/4, the last of the three figures is extended to six beats. The second half of the bridge hovers around G♭maj7, with an A♭ pentatonic melody that connects back to the C section which is the same as A.

Solos are on the same form as the head, including the hemiola II-V7-I figures in the bridge. On the recording, the piano plays the same syncopated comping figures on every chorus, but our lead sheets show the harmonic rhythm as the bass walks on the solos, with the piano rhythms below the staff as an option. The bass walks two beats each of the II and V7 chords and only one beat of the first two I chords. In these five- and six-beat cadences, a soloist may not have time to outline the whole II-V7-I; one possible solution is to pick one of the three chords and play off that chord for all five or six beats. On the recording, the piano solos in the space created by the four-measure-long melody notes in the A section of the head.

About the arrangement: The horns begin harmonized in sixths with a few fifths, with A natural harmonizing the melody F on the long Cm7 chord; this intriguing choice creates a Cm13 tonality. The seventh and eighth measures have the horns in unison, going back to harmony (a fourth resolving to a third) for the rest of the A section. Our second parts and Concert Condensed Score show the countermelody that Antonio Hart plays on the bridge of the in head on the recording; he plays a different countermelody on the bridge of the out head, and both may be improvised. They both make sense with the changes and melody, and line up with the rhythm section hits.