A playful blues head that explores a unique harmonic motion in the melody: major to minor sevenths (A and A♭). The tonic chord really is a B♭ triad, with no specified seventh. These two notes in the melody reappear on the IV and V chords, as the sharp 11th (sharp 4th) and 4th of E♭7 and as the third and sharp ninth on F7. A classic example of Herbie Nichols’ simple, elegant harmonic depth.
Ethan Iverson, in his solo piano recording, really demonstrates the quirky playfulness of this song. He highlights the half-step motion of the sevenths by harmonizing A♮ with A♭ in the lower octave, and vice versa. Some of Ethan’s phrasing is slightly different from the original manuscript; notably, he leaves out the last melody note and ties over the D♭ pickup to the last measure, harmonizing with a B7 chord. Ethan adds a four-measure intro based on the melody. One subtle harmonic detail from Herbie Nichols’ original manuscript that Ethan catches on each melody chorus is in the tenth measure: two beats each of E♭7 and F7. This older style of blues turnaround really complements the end of the melody, which is firmly within the blues scale.
As this project consists of songs that had not yet been recorded, we wanted to present the songs as written as much as possible. Here's an excerpt of a separate recording by pianist Jake Sasfai, a former student of Don Sickler's at Columbia University, playing the head as it appears in our lead sheet which comes directly from Herbie Nichols' manuscript.
CLIP
Ethan Iverson has written about Herbie Nichols in his blog, Do The Math. In a 2017 blog post he shared the article Herbie wrote about Thelonious Monk for Rhythm magazine in 1946. Check out the historical notes on
Stratosphere, for more details.
At the
Herbie Nichols Piano Summit, Frank Kimbrough played a very simple version of
Blues For Sale [clip]. He plays B♭7 in the left hand at the beginning; both Ethan Iverson’s and Jake Sasfai’s interpretations (click on Description for details) keep the seventh ambiguous along with the melody. All three pianists add a sharp fifth to B♭7 in the fourth measure.
March 5, 1957, is the date attached to Herbie’s manuscript (he mailed certified letter versions to himself)—two days before
She Insists and
Summer Rain. Herbie recorded his Bethlehem trio album “Love, Gloom, Cash, Love” later in 1957.
Check out all the new Herbie Nichols releases: "
The Second Six"
