Venita's Dance – Kenny Dorham

Venita’s Dance has many hallmarks of the Kenny Dorham sound—lyrical melody, some bebop-style lines, clever harmonic detail—packed in a compact 16-measure form. This song starts in A minor and ends in C major, resulting in a bittersweet mood. The second four-measure phrase features a descending series of II-V7s, leading to a stepwise “walk up” in the next four measures. On this latter phrase the rhythm section figures bounce off the half-note melody, hitting the “ands” of beats 1 and 3.

A nine-measure intro sets up the head; the last note of the last measure ties over for a seamless transition into the start of the head. There’s also a coda that starts after eight measures of the second out melody chorus; it takes the end of the head in a different direction, leading to four measures of pedal point with a Latin groove to the final chord.

About the arrangement: As with many Kenny Dorham songs, the rhythm section parts are very important. On Venita’s Dance we have a single three-staff rhythm section edition showing piano, bass and drums on separate staves so each player can really see how they fit together in the arrangement.

The horns have some harmony and some unison in the head; on the second four measures the 2nd and 3rd parts play a unison countermelody. Most of the intro and the second four measures of the coda feature the trumpet 1st part alone on the melody.

A Full Score and a Concert Score are also available to study.

Besides the sextet arrangement from the recording, we also have a quintet arrangement by Don Sickler which has been performed but not yet recorded. In Don Sickler’s quintet arrangement, the melody and rhythm section are the same as in Kenny Dorham’s original sextet recording. The difference is in the second part (tenor sax on the score), which harmonizes the trumpet melody nearly throughout including the entire intro and coda. In the “walk up” phrase, the tenor hits the “ands” of beats 1 and 3 with the rhythm section instead of going with the melody as in the sextet arrangement. A Full Score is available for this quintet arrangement.