Mellow Side – Al Cohn

Like many Al Cohn songs, this one is certainly on the mellow side with its smooth melody and light swing. Many of the melody phrases are in a pentatonic scale for a simple, slightly "folksy" sound. The form is ABCD with no repeated sections, with a break for the first solo at the end of the D section which extends it to 10 measures (the other sections are eight measures); the solo form is an even 32 measures. The changes are relatively diatonic with some tasteful passing chords. The B section goes to F major and toward E♭ major (though this chord is only played in the solo changes). The D section begins with a chromatic "walk down" from F♯m7(b5); in the seventh measure there is a similar descending progression.

There is an eight-measure intro with rhythm section hits; the first half of this intro is based on similar hits in the second half of the C section. Our lead sheet shows mostly the top line of the four-horn arrangement from the original recording; it also includes a couple of chromatically descending countermelodies in the 3rd and 4th measures of A and the beginning of D, taken from the second part; these fill in around the longer notes of the melody. The original recording has a different out melody based on the intro, instead of going back to the head; for the lead sheet, we've added a rhythmic ending that works with the head. We've also included an optional interlude between or after solos, which is not played on Joe Cohn's recording; it's the same as the 7th and 8th measures of D plus a 2-measure break for the next soloist (or drums, to lead back to the out head).

Saxophonist Al Cohn was a familiar figure at the Second Floor Music/jazzleadsheets.com rehearsal studio in midtown Manhattan. Many of Uptown Records' sessions were rehearsed there in the 1980s, since Don Sickler was often arranger and session producer. After Al's death, Twenty-Eighth Street/Second Floor Music, as publisher, became involved with his children. Al's son Joe Cohn also rehearsed often at the studio, and Don and Joe talked about Al's legacy. In 2015, they gathered SFM interns Ben Rubens and Ben Zweig, students at Manhattan School of Music at the time, for a session at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, with Joe playing his father's music.

Joe Cohn combines the roles of melody and comping on this recording, especially in the intro where he plays the chord hits with the bass and drums which fill in around the melody. He voices most of the longer notes of the melody; some of his voicings resemble those of the original four-horn arrangement. He also plays the countermelodies in the 3rd and 4th measures of the A section and the beginning of the D section.