Windmill – Kenny Dorham
Don Sickler: I remember in 1983 telling Jimmy Heath that I wanted us to record Windmill on my K.D. project album. He was ecstatic! Jimmy always thought that was one of Kenny's absolutely slickest heads. It's one of Dorham's most subtle and intricate songs. Our "K.D. Challenge" version has Minus You tracks for all instruments.
- Recording: Kenny Dorham - Whistle Stop
- Recorded on: January 15, 1961
- Label: Blue Note (BLP 4063)
- Concert Key: A-flat, No key center
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Trumpet - Kenny Dorham
- Tenor Sax - Hank Mobley
- Piano - Kenny Drew
- Bass - Paul Chambers
- Drums - Philly Joe Jones
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
The intro (which is 10 measures long) and the A and C sections of the head all begin with rhythm section pedal points on beats 2 and 4. These and other rhythm section figures, as well as the melody's varied phrase lengths, make the song's harmonic basis not obvious: it is an ingenious line over Sweet Georgia Brown changes. In the last eight measures of the melody, the relation is somewhat clearer; the melodic direction starts to recall that of Sweet Georgia Brown, but then shifts harmonically in a totally different direction to get back to the A♭.The intro reappears as a coda, which winds down to an unexpected B♭7(♯9) chord.
Don Sickler: The basic quintet second parts we're making available comes from my recording with Jimmy Heath, and is my synthesis of the two parts Kenny created for his two trumpet/tenor sax quintet arrangements. The first one with Hank Mobley, and the uptempo swing arrangement with Clifford Jordan. The Tenor Sax parts as recorded for each of these two arrangements are available on the individual pages for each of these recordings.
If your goal is to play Windmill as it was recorded on this album, you'll need Hank Mobley's part, shown here as Tenor Sax 2nd part (Whistle Stop), to go along with our B-flat lead sheet (the 1st Trumpet part) and the Piano, Bass and Drum parts.
To play Windmill with alternate instrumental parts:
Alternate 1st parts are found under "The K.D. Challenge" album cover above right.
Alternate 2nd parts are found under "The Music Of Kenny Dorham" album cover above right.
One of the many high points of Dorham's masterpiece album "Whistle Stop," this song was recorded again exactly five months later on Clifford Jordan's album "Starting Time." Click on the second album cover for more details about this version.
Jazzleadsheets.com has many compositions available by all five members of the quintet heard on "Whistle Stop," particularly Hank Mobley. The rhythm section of Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones also first recorded together in March of 1956 with John Coltrane, on a Chambers-led session in Los Angeles issued as "Chambers' Music." They also played together on the "Kenny Drew Trio" album in September of that year, Coltrane's classic "Blue Train" a year later, and in May 1961 on Dexter Gordon's "Dexter Calling."
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- Recording: Clifford Jordan - Starting Time
- Recorded on: June 15, 1961
- Label: Jazzland (JLP 52)
- Concert Key: A-flat
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (uptempo)
- Trumpet - Kenny Dorham
- Tenor Sax - Clifford Jordan
- Piano - Cedar Walton
- Bass - Wilbur Ware
- Drums - Tootie Heath
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
The tenor sax second part is slightly different; much of the B section is in octaves instead of unison. A separate second part is available for this arrangement. This version adds an extra note in the melody, a concert F♮ on the "and" of beat 4 in the last measure of the B section. It is harmonized in the tenor part with a D♭. Hank Mobley plays a D♭ here on the original recording, but Kenny holds the melody note A♭ out for the whole measure. In our second part for this Clifford Jordan version, the first part with the extra note is shown for this measure.
If your goal is to play Windmill as it was recorded on this album, you'll need Clifford Jordan's part, shown here Tenor Sax 2nd part (Starting Time), to go along with our B-flat lead sheet (the 1st Trumpet part) and the Piano, Bass and Drum parts.
To play Windmill with alternate instrumental parts:
Alternate 1st parts are found under "The K.D. Challenge" album cover above right.
Alternate 2nd parts are found under "The Music Of Kenny Dorham" album cover above right.
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- Recording: Don Sickler - The Music Of Kenny Dorham
- Recorded on: November 12, 1983
- Label: Uptown (UP27.17)
- Concert Key: A-flat, No key center
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Trumpet - Don Sickler
- Tenor Sax - Jimmy Heath
- Piano - Cedar Walton
- Bass - Ron Carter
- Drums - Billy Higgins
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Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
If your goal is to play Windmill as it was recorded on this album, you'll need Jimmy Heath's part, shown here as Tenor Sax 2nd part (Music Of KD), to go along with our B-flat lead sheet (the 1st Trumpet part) and the Piano, Bass and Drum parts.
To play Windmill with alternate instrumental parts:
Alternate 1st parts are found under "The K.D. Challenge" album cover above right.
Alternate 2nd parts are available here.
Though Ron Carter and Billy Higgins never recorded on Kenny Dorham-led albums, they both played with K.D. with other leaders: Carter with Milt Jackson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and tenor saxophonist Rocky Boyd; and Higgins with Cedar Walton, Jackie McLean and Barry Harris. Jimmy Heath played on two K.D. albums: his 1953 Debut-label debut, "Kenny Dorham Quintet," and 1960's "Showboat." Kenny's albums "This Is The Moment" and "Blue Spring," from 1958 and '59 respectively, were Cedar Walton's first recordings.
Other musicians who have covered Windmill include trumpeters Carlos Abadie and Tom Williams as well as pianist Kirk Lightsey. A very different version concludes "News For Lulu," an album of hard bop songs by the avant-garde trio of John Zorn, George Lewis, and Bill Frisell, recorded in Switzerland in 1987.
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- Recording: Don Sickler - The K.D. Challenge
- Recorded on: October 6, 2001
- Label: jazzleadsheets.com (JLS 1033)
- Concert Key: A-flat
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Trumpet - Don Sickler
- Piano - Cecilia Coleman
- Bass - Tim Givens
- Drums - Vince Cherico
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
First parts for all instruments, rhythm section parts and Minus You tracks are available here. For second tenor sax parts, click on the appropriate album cover (Hank Mobley, Clifford Jordan, Jimmy Heath); alternate second parts, click on "The Music Of Kenny Dorham" album cover.
The challenging part of Windmill is not the solo section: the solos are on Sweet Georgia Brown changes. Kenny's intro, head and coda, however are intricate and challenging.
Besides our full track with solo choruses, we have three other tracks available that contain only the intro, head, and coda. These tracks are for practicing the melody and rhythm section figures at slow, medium, and fast tempos and are available in the same Minus You formats as the full track. The fast version approaches the tempo of the Clifford Jordan recording. Click on the next album cover ("The K.D. Challenge Practice Tracks") for details and audio clips (under that album's Minus You tab).
As noted in the Description, Windmill is based on Sweet Georgia Brown changes. According to Wikipedia, a contrafact is "a musical composition consisting of a new melody overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure. Contrafact can also be explained as the use of borrowed chord progressions." Kenny Dorham wrote several contrafacts; Prince Albert, based on All The Things You Are was very likely the first one he wrote. We're working on a couple more that will soon be available on jazzleadsheets.com.
We've created multiple practice versions of this minus drum track at various tempos. These tracks are for practicing the melody and rhythm section figures at slow, medium, and fast tempos and are available in the same formats as the full track. See the next album cover.
Click here to learn more about"The K.D. Challenge" recordings and be sure to check out the rest!
CLIP The full track has this format:
-- intro
-- melody
-- trumpet solo 2 choruses
-- out melody
-- coda
mp3 minus melody
-- count off sets up the intro
-- play the intro and melody
-- solo 2 choruses
-- play the out melody and coda
mp3 minus Piano
-- count off sets up the intro
-- play figures and comp for the intro and melody
-- comp for the trumpet solo 2 choruses
-- play figures and comp for the out melody and coda
mp3 minus Bass
-- count off sets up the intro
-- play figures and walk for the intro and melody
-- walk for the trumpet solo 2 choruses
-- play figures and walk for the out melody and coda
mp3 minus Drums
-- count off sets up the intro
-- play figures and comp for the intro and melody
-- comp for the trumpet solo 2 choruses
-- play figures and comp for the out melody and coda
See the next album cover K.D. Challenge Practice Tracks for three different tempos that are great for locking in with the rhythm section.
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- Recording: Don Sickler - The K.D. Challenge - practice tracks
- Recorded on: October 6 , 2001
- Label: jazzleadsheets.com (JLS 1033-A)
- Concert Key: A-flat
- Vocal Range: , to
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Trumpet - Don Sickler
- Piano - Cecilia Coleman
- Bass - Tim Givens
- Drums - Vince Cherico
Video
- Description
- Historical Notes
- Solos
- Piano Corner
- Bass Corner
- Drum Corner
- Guitar Corner
- Inside & Beyond
- Minus You
Click on the Minus You tab to hear samples of each.
During the recording session, Don convinced the rhythm section to record the intro, head and coda four times, at four different tempos. First we did the medium-up tempo track for The K.D. Challenge album. The band loved playing Windmill, and they'd played it many times in the past, so at our normal tempo, it went smoothly. Medium tempo was also OK. Uptempo (fast) was more challenging, but the most challenging was the slow tempo.
We have three tracks available that contain only the intro, melody, and coda; these are labeled by tempo and are great for practicing locking in with the rhythm section:
CLIP slow mix
CLIP slow minus melody
CLIP slow minus piano
CLIP slow minus bass
CLIP slow minus drums
- - -
CLIP medium mix
CLIP medium minus melody
CLIP medium minus piano
CLIP medium minus bass
CLIP medium minus drums
- - -
CLIP fast mix
CLIP fast minus melody
CLIP fast minus piano
CLIP fast minus bass
CLIP fast minus drums
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Kenny Dorham
August 30, 1924 – December 15, 1972
August 30, 2024, is Kenny Dorham's 100th birthday: jazzleadsheets.com has added 10 new K.D. compositions, shown on the home page under New Arrivals. Check them out! Read more...