Chuggin' – Gary McFarland

This medium-tempo song really swings, with a bluesy feeling that is simultaneously contemporary for its time and reminiscent of earlier jazz styles. On the solo piano arrangement, Gary's original tempo indication is "bluesy, stride feeling"; the stride-like piano writing (also heard on the original recording) provides a contrast to the subtle, chromatically shifting harmonies. In short this could be called an early example of "avant-trad" jazz. The root motion is almost entirely stepwise, descending in half steps from E♭ to A♭ in the first four measures and then creeping around to B♭ going back to E♭. The bridge is based on a familiar IV7-♯IV diminished motion, again creeping around stepwise. Though the head is an AABC form, the big band arrangement of this original recording has solos on a 12-measure blues; the head changes are just as valid as a solo form.

The changes in our lead sheets are taken from Gary's original solo piano arrangement (click on the Piano Corner tab for more details). The big band arrangement has one difference in the changes. The last measure of the first A section still has a chord on each beat, but they all rise: B, C, D♭, and D triads instead of D, E♭, E, E♭. This arrangement begins with solo piano (Gerry Mulligan) for one A section as an intro, continuing under the trombone melody (Bob Brookmeyer) for the first A section of the head. Horn backgrounds replace the piano on the second A section. After solos on the blues, the out head starts from the bridge, which is played first by the woodwinds as in the in head, and then repeated with the full band as a climactic point of the arrangement before the C section out. This second bridge has an added Dixieland sound, with trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and baritone sax improvising over the ensemble for the first six measures. At the seventh measure of the out C section, there is an abrupt switch to one more C section played again on solo piano, with the horns entering for the last four chords.

Note:The lead sheets available here are the same as the ones under the Michael Benedict album.

Chuggin' was arranged by McFarland. It was later recorded on two McFarland tribute albums. Besides Michael Benedict's 2015 version (click on the second album cover for more details), a 10-piece arrangement is on Mark Masters' 2005 tribute "Wish Me Well." This latter album also contains the first recording of Kitch, which was also recorded by the jazzleadsheets.com rhythm section. In 2009 tenor saxophonist Fred Hess recorded Chuggin' on his big band album "Hold On".

Gary's original Solo Piano Arrangement features stride left-hand figures almost throughout, with the right hand melody unharmonized. On the last measures of the two A sections, where there is a chord on each beat, the left hand has loping, boogie-woogie-like 8th note figures. The ending has a ritard to a single A7♯5(♯9) chord, rather than the four-chord figure on the recording which is included in the lead sheet.