The recording correctly titled
A Lady's Vanity consists of Lucky Thompson's improvisation on the changes of
Body And Soul, with a written intro and ending. Our Solo Transcription therefore takes the place of a lead sheet. Besides Lucky's solo, our editions contain the mostly solo guitar intro and ending. Lucky plays two choruses, followed by a half-chorus which consists of a bass solo on the bridge, and one more C section of Lucky's improvisation, also included in our editions. For more details about Lucky's playing, click on the Solos tab.
Click on Historical Notes for an explanation of the confusion surrounding the title.
Check out other titles from the
same album, and see what's on their
Volume 2 collaboration.
On many editions of this album, this track was titled
Deep Passion; the name
A Lady's Vanity was applied to a different ballad that is Lucky's own improvised composition. The latter has turned out to be the true
Deep Passion.
Don Sickler: "It is extremely gratifying to be able to straighten out something in jazz history that has been misconstrued or, in this case, mislabeled, for years. Here, the wrong title was put on a recorded track. I've run into some situations in my career in jazz where wrongly-assigned titles have been impossible to correct; I've found the true facts, but haven't been able to make sure the correct name was put on the correct composition. In this case, however, the two titles can be officially restored to the songs they were intended for."
Lucky Thompson Transcribed Tenor Sax Improvisation: It's true that Lucky starts his improvisation by playing the first four notes of the melody of
Body and Soul, however, his rhythmical approach to those notes is altogether different:
clip. He then repeats the fourth note, which gives this last note the emphasis in his phrase. In the second measure, he repeats his four-note pattern in a new rhythmic context, and then plays it down a half step in yet another rhythmic context. From the third measure, he develops his solo line into a magical Lucky Thompson journey over his view of the chord progression of
Body and Soul. Though the sixteenth-note lines throughout the solo may at first seem intimidating, at this slow tempo they move along at a moderate pace and are a classic example of Lucky's unique phrasing and articulation. The truly fast passages are in the bridge of the second chorus: four measures of 32nd-note runs with the signature elegance that characterizes his ballad playing.
