Ray's Idea

"Ray's Idea" is the last of my sheet music from this series (see "That's Earl, Brother" and "52nd Street Theme"). But it's not the last of my Dizzy Gillespie sheet music. I also have a songbook from 1946 I'll try to get scanned and posted one of these days!

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That's Earl, Brother

Dizzy Gillespie's "That's Earl, Brother" is another from Robbins Music's Be-Bop series (see my previous post - "52nd Street Theme").

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Walk Don't Run

"Walk Don't Run" was a giant hit in 1960 for a group from Tacoma Washington, called the Ventures. They got it from a Chet Atkins album, and Chet originally got it from jazz guitarist Johnny Smith. (Whoops! This is starting to sound like a Lenny Bruce routine.)

At any rate, "Walk Don't Run" is a very catchy tune, which Johnny Smith based on the changes to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise". He overdubbed the recording to create 2-part guitar counterpoint.

I've written it here for 2 guitars, bass and drums. We're playing this in the "advanced" combo at Shoreline Community College.

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Al Cohn's Recorded Solos of the Stars

I picked up this little gem at a library sale recently. The copyright date is 1956. There are 7 songs, and they are from 2 albums by Al Cohn: "The Natural Seven" and "The Brothers".

Here is the list of songs:

The Walrus Cap Snapper Baby Please A. C. Meets Osie Jack's Kinda Swing Count Me In The Natural Thing To Do

It looks like what we get is the head to each song, then a couple of transcribed solos by Al Cohn, Joe Newman, Frank Rehack, etc. Unfortunately, the cd's seem to be out of print and I don't have any of the recordings, so I can't vouch for accuracy.

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Overtime

Cripes! I didn't know I had this one.

Pete Rugolo's "Overtime" is a screaming be-bop number recorded by the Metronome All Star Band in 1949.

This piano arrangement was transcribed by Pete Rugolo himself, and includes condensed versions of solos by Charlie Parker, Buddy DeFranco, Lennie Tristano and others.

Wow! I need to go through my sheet music more often.

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Work Song

Here is a nice arrangement of Nat Adderley's "Work Song". Originally recorded in 1960, the song was a big hit for the Cannonball Adderley Quintet and was later performed and recorded by many other artists as well.

This updated version from 1962 features horns in 2-part harmony, lots of sus chords and a very nice Joe Zawinul ending.

The Cannonball Adderley Sextet included Yusef Lateef when this album was recorded, but unfortunately he isn't on "Work Song". So I've written the tune for alto sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums.

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Do Do Do (What Now is Next)

"... heh, heh, heh... heh, heh, heh... On with the music, on with the show. Ladies and gentlemen, with a nice round of applause, may we say - The Cannonball Adderley Quintet!" Do do do... and the band launches into Nat Adderley's "Do Do Do (What Now is Next)".

That's the opening of the first song on the first jazz record I ever bought, "74 Miles Away / Walk Tall". "Do Do Do" has a great double-time groove which never fails to move me. It's basically a blues, modified to a 32-bar song form. It was also recorded by The Three Sounds, but I've never heard that version. I don't know if Gail Fisher's (Mannix's secretary) lyrics were ever recorded.

I wrote out the tune a couple of years ago, but we've never used it. You can try it out:

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Confirmation

"Confirmation" is the last of my 1940's Charlie Parker sheet music. As you can see, Capitol Songs also published "Moose the Mooche", but I don't have it.

I do have more in this series, though, and I'll try to post them later.

This arrangement, again by Morris Feldman, includes transcriptions of solos by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Haig.

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Yardbird Suite

Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" is in several of the fakebooks, and is probably more useful in that form, but I think this sheet music from 1948 is pretty cool. It came from the estate sale where I made the biggest score of my record collecting life. I've mentioned it before ("52nd Street Theme", "Recorded by Basie").

This piano arrangement is by Morris Feldman, and includes transcriptions of 3 solos by Charlie Parker, Lucky Thompson and Dodo Marmarosa (but not Miles Davis!). I don't know how accurate they are.

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Recorded by Basie

This is a songbook of tunes recorded by the Count Basie band back in the 1950's. It's from the same estate sale as 52nd Street Theme. I won't bore anyone with the story right now.

The book contains lead sheets to 23 songs written by the likes of Quincy Jones, Frank Foster and Ernie Wilkins. The text in the photo is almost readable, but here's a list anyway:

Basie's Back in Town Basie Talks Big Red Down For the Count Sixteen Men Swinging The Blues Done Come Back Stereophonic Shiny Stockin's Blues Back Stage The Midnite Sun Will Never Set For Lena and Lenny Basie Goes Wess Blues Go Away I Need's to be Bee'd With She's Just My Size Jessica's Day Meet Benny Bailey Bootsie Lady in Lace Bread Did'n You Magic Blues For the Count and Oscar

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Smack Up

I figured I might as well post the A-side of the record as well. The photo is just a reminder that "Smack Up", though more well known as an Art Pepper recording, was written and first recorded by Harold Land.

Thinking about it, it seems interesting that these drug-related songs are so darned cheerful. We've been conditioned, I think, to expect any song about heroin to be really heavy ("God Damn the pusher man...", "Men die for that spoonful..." and so on). But "Smack Up" is a really happy tune. The songs from "The Connection" are also downright cheery.

This one is from my "House Advantage (Fake) Book" also.

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