Blues part 5 – Meade Lux Lewis

This final episode in this series of five blues solos has more chordal passages in the right hand, as well as more single-note lines in the left hand, than the others. It has a four-measure intro, which starts very similarly to that of part 2. However, where part 2 goes down in the second measure using an Fm6 chord, part 5 rises to a bright A9. Part 5 has a lot of dynamic contrasts, starting with the accented melody notes that rise out of the decrescendo at the end of the intro. The first chorus is very simple, with mostly single-note lines over the left hand 2-feel bass line. The second chorus introduces a chordal right-hand theme, three repeated accented chords (two short, one long) before going back to mostly single-note lines in the fifth measure. The third chorus is more free-flowing, without a repeated theme at the beginning; it contains some forceful right-hand chords near the end. The left hand plays open position voicings on the first six measures of the fourth chorus, but in whole and half notes rather than the quarter notes used in parts 1 through 4. On this chorus the right hand starts with rolling triplets, with fast arpeggios and runs in the fifth and sixth measures followed by a chordal texture over 2-feel in the left hand. This texture continues into the fifth chorus, which has many dynamic contrasts. The left hand takes the lead in the sixth chorus, playing heavy swing 8th notes (written here as triplets with a rest in the middle) in a stomping bass line with the left hand playing sustained chords. The texture lightens a little in the fifth measure, but returns to heavy two-handed chords in the eighth measure leading into a quick decrescendo to end, somewhat similar to the end of part 2.

The rolling triplet texture in the fourth chorus is similar to that of the third chorus of part 1. A couple of short rising and falling fast runs are reminiscent of similar runs in part 3, for example at the beginning of the third chorus. The descending chordal figure that shows up many times in this series appears again in this one, in the ninth measure of the fourth chorus.

Although he didn't record these sessions, engineer Rudy Van Gelder became the engineer of choice for Blue Note Records starting in the mid-1950s. Rudy said he built his Englewood Cliffs studio (in 1959) because he knew he had the support of a steady client in Alfred Lion.

"The First Day."

This series of five blues solos were transcribed by Shaye Cohn, who is the daughter of guitarist Joe Cohn and the granddaughter of saxophonist Al Cohn. We have made these transcriptions highly detailed, with a special focus on the dynamics. Often the two hands are at different dynamic levels, and we feel it is very important to note where the left hand accompaniment is truly in the background behind the right hand melody.

These solos are played with a rolling swing feel, and we have notated swing eighth notes in triplets in many places where the rhythmic feel is dominated by triplets.