Little Lucas – Eric Alexander

There are some differences between this first recording of Little Lucas and our lead sheets. After this recording, Eric started fine-tuning the melody and added a rhythm section intro, which he also uses under the melody of the last four measures of each A section. All of these adjustments are present in our lead sheets.

This song has a similar harmonic language to Joe Henderson's classic Inner Urge. All the chords of the A section are major 7ths, which for the first four measures alternate moving a half step up followed by a major 3rd down. The bridge provides a contrast, with II-Vs leading to E♭; this section appears twice. Though the form is essentially AABBA, the melody is slightly different on all A and B sections, traveling through the changes in increasingly complex ways. The solo form is longer than the head; the chords that were two beats long in the A sections of the melody are now each a measure long, making a 12-measure section.

For a description of the intro and related rhythm section figures, click on the One For All album cover, "The Lineup."

Eric plays the melody in the range indicated in the B♭ tenor sax lead sheet, but with a slightly different melody in the bridge.

"It's All In The Game" is the twelfth Eric Alexander album to feature Harold Mabern, the tenth with both Mabern and Farnsworth, and the second with this exact personnel. It is only Eric's second album as a leader for High Note. The melody Eric plays on the bridge in this version of Little Lucas was used in Michael Dease's big band arrangement, recorded on his 2013 album "Relentless."

The composition was named for Eric's son Lucas.

This sextet arrangement introduces the intro written on the lead sheet. The "simile intro" written for the fifth through eighth measure of the A section means that the bass and piano (left hand) should play the same four-measure figure as on the intro.

With our lead sheet editions, now everyone can learn the melody. But if you have a combo, the printed sextet arrangement, with full score and alternate parts, is available at MusicDispatch.com.

Recorded less than a year after Eric's "It's All In The Game" album, "The Lineup" is the tenth album by One For All. This album introduces the only personnel change of the band's long career: the introduction of bassist John Webber. Peter Washington had played on most of One For All's previous albums, with Ray Drummond filling in on "The Long Haul" (2000) and "No Problem (2003), and David Williams playing on the 2005 album "Killer Joe."

This live quartet recording (One For All without the brass) features an updated arrangement based on the One For All version. The intro is the same, though drummer Joe Farnsworth plays on the bell of the cymbal, resulting in a slightly more Latin sound. Eric plays the melody on the bridge the way it is in the One For All version; on the first A section he takes measures 5 and 6 up an octave from where it is written in the B♭ tenor sax lead sheet.

This concert from Asheville, North Carolina, is also available as a DVD (which comes with the CD). The quartet made up of One For All minus trumpeter Jim Rotondi and trombonist Steve Davis appears on two other albums, both under Alexander's leadership. The first, "Two Of A Kind", was recorded in New York in 1996 (see David Hazeltine's Pentimento for more details); the second was "My Favorite Things," recorded in Tokyo in September 2007.