Kenny Drew, Jr.'s vast musical knowledge coupled with a tremendous melodic and harmonic gift has yielded many absolute gems, including
Alhambra. Our audio excerpt begins with what appears to be an intriguing introduction, built on a double bass line (a flowing left hand piano line on top of the bass player's line—all notated in our C treble clef lead sheet.) But in fact this section later reappears as the E section of what we've labeled ABCDE; a constantly evolving melody that can also be thought of as an A1-B1-A2-B2-C format. The melody starts in minor (A1) but beautifully evolves and is reborn in major for the A2 section.
The key center of this song moves around a lot, typical of Kenny's compositions. The chord progression is particularly interesting with regard to the relationship between the first sixteen measures (A and B) and the second sixteen (C and D). The changes in these two sixteen-measure sections are very similar, but some chord qualities are different (e.g., G minor in the A section versus G major at C), leading to different chords that end up in the same place (e.g., G minor to A♭ to B♭, versus G major to E minor to F minor to B♭). The melody is also very similar in these sections but changed to reflect the harmonic change. As with
A Look Inside from the same album, the form ends in a sort of vamp.
Note that this composition has been recorded using two different spellings:
Alhambra which is the correct spelling for the Moorish fortress in Spain, and
Alahambra, as shown on the "A Look Inside" album.
Only three of the eleven songs on the album "
A Look Inside" feature this trio. Bassist George Mraz first recorded with Kenny in 1991 (in a trio context with drummer Al Foster) where they recorded Kenny's beautiful tribute to Bill Evans called
This One's For Bill (album: "
Kenny Drew Jr."). In 2001, Mraz was on another one of Drew's trio albums ("Autumn"). Drummer Lewis Nash would also later record on two more of Kenny's albums: "
Passionata" (1995) and "Reverie" (1996). Tenor saxophonist David Sanchez sits in with the trio heard here on the
title track.
