Purchasing this song through our affiliate links with certain retailers provides jazzleadsheets.com with additional support to help keep us bringing you the best lead sheets available. Thank you!
Paul Gonsalves' inimitable style is certainly evident in this 32-measure song. The melody rises and falls in an elegant, Ellingtonian fashion, with several notable chromatic passing and surrounding tones (for example F♯ A G in the third measure). The bridge melody is at first simpler than that of the A section, but goes into 16th-note runs in the last two measures. The changes are quite simple, recalling Perdido or Tadd Dameron'sOur Delight. There is a coda that extends the last melody phrase in a circle of 4ths ultimately resolving back to B♭maj7b5.
This album was recorded in Munich, Germany, during a European tour by Duke Ellington's band. The local pianist on this session, Carlos Diernhammer, is rather obscure. He recorded three sessions with drummer Freddy Brocksieper in 1952, 1955, and 1957, as well as two songs on guitarist Attila Zoller's first album as a leader, "Night Bounce," in 1962.
A unique and very individual tenor saxophonist, Paul Gonsalves was born in Boston, MA, and raised in Pawtucket, R.I. Back in Boston, he was featured with the Sabby Lewis band, and after Army service (1942-1945) he made his first recording with Sabby Lewis in March 1946. Later that year he joined the Count Basie band, replacing Illinois Jacquet. He made his first official recording with Basie on January 3, 1947. He remained with Basie into 1949, then joined Dizzy Gillespie's bop-oriented big band later that year, recording with them on November 21, 1949, and January 9, 1950. Read more...
