Gnosis – Jonny King

Despite its medium-uptempo swing and eight-measure melodic phrases, this is a highly advanced song. The chord progression almost entirely lacks II-V7-type motion, while not being obviously modal; the harmonies in several places are based on "planing" the same chord quality, transposed in different intervals. A particularly fascinating example of this is in the A and B sections of the head: from a major 7♯5 chord in third inversion (the 7th in the bass), the chord planes down while the bass note planes up. Without recourse to tonal or modal vocabulary, the soloist should develop melodies based on common tones between the chords; this is what makes the melody of this song particularly strong, along with a couple of subtle blues phrases in the A and B sections.

The head is 32 measures long and repeated twice, after an eight-measure vamp intro around F♯ minor which also appears after the solos and at the end. The solo form is only 14 measures long, based on the 17th through 30th measures of the head changes. On the ninth through twelfth of these measures, the alternating A triad over B♭ and C triad over F♯ imply C♯ whole/half step diminished scale.

On this recording, Jonny plays the head rubato before setting up time with the vamp intro. The drums come in on the fourth measure of the vamp, with the bass entering in the fifth measure. Tenor sax and vibes then come in to play the melody in unison for the head, in time.

"Notes From The Underground" was Jonny's second album as a leader. His first, "In From The Cold", was recorded in January of 1994 with saxophonists Vincent Herring and Mark Turner, bassist Ira Coleman, and drummer Billy Drummond. His only other recordings prior to "Notes From The Underground" were two albums led by trombonist Eric Felten.

The cover photo for "Notes From The Underground" was taken next to the sprinkler pump in the basement of the seven-story mid-Manhattan building which houses Second Floor Music and, now, jazzleadsheets.com.