Short-Cake – J.J. Johnson

Like Say When from the same album, Short-Cake is a classic example of the lyrical side of J.J. Johnson's writing. This song begins with stop-time in which rhythm section hits fill in the long notes of the melody. The key of Short-Cake is deceptive: the form begins in a D minor tonality, with descending changes in the second eight measures landing in D major and going back to D minor for the second half of the song. Only in the last five measures is the key center ultimately revealed as B♭ major.

We present this song as a melody and solo transcription showing what J.J. played on the original recording. Click on Solos for more details. The audio clip above includes the opening melody and first chorus of J.J.'s solo.

Like some other songs from "The Total J.J. Johnson," Short-Cake works just as well in a combo setting as with a big band. Two months after the original big band recording, this song was recorded by Art Farmer on his Columbia album "The Time And The Place." J.J. also recorded Short-Cake on his 1988 live quintet album "Standards," and it has also been recorded in tribute to J.J. by trombonists Steve Turre and Steve Davis.

Trombonist Steve Davis recently rehearsed in the jazzleadsheets.com studio. Talking of J.J., he lamented that J.J. made even the very difficult passages sound easy, when in fact no one else could play that cleanly.

Our three-page melody/solo transcription shows everything J.J. Johnson played on the recording, plus all important ensemble countermelodies and hits. J.J. plays the head and then solos for one chorus. In the third and last chorus, there are eight measures of ensemble figures (our transcription shows the lead line here), and J.J. returns to play the rest of the melody out. As with Say When, J.J.'s solo chorus is every bit as precise and clearly articulated as his written melody.