Not Far At All – Valery Ponomarev

Stop-time call and response between the melody and rhythm section is a staple of the Jazz Messengers sound. Not Far At All is a medium-up example, in a classic Messengers style. The melody develops a simple blues-scale riff over the changes, telling an elegant little story punctuated by rhythm section hits in a concise 16-measure form. Though blues-like, this song is not quite a blues; the 7th through 11th measures have a long circle of fourths from D7 to F7 using F♯dim7 to get back to the tonic. The last two chord hits in the head, B♭7sus and C7sus, are preserved as the final resolution in the solos (with the tonic chord Cm7) for a slightly unexpected cadence.

There is a four-measure drum intro that sets up the first melody break. On the recording, Art Blakey plays time on the ride cymbal through most of the breaks; as shown in our lead sheet, these certainly work as clean breaks in the drums instead. There is a coda that tags the last melody phrase and hits, leading to a final A7♭5(♭9) chord. This final chord is the only place where the horns are harmonized on this sextet recording; on the head they play unison and octaves.

The recording of this song is not easy to find. Recorded at the same session as the "Reflections In Blue" album, Not Far At All was released instead on some reissues of ""In My Prime, Vol. 1". The title of this song on these releases is Not So Far At All, but Not Far At All is Valery's original title. The rest of "In My Prime, Vol. 1" was recorded nearly a year earlier with an expanded lineup adding trombonist Curtis Fuller and percussionist Ray Mantilla. Earlier in 1978, Valery Ponomarev also recorded his song Blues For Two with the Jazz Messengers on the live album "In This Korner."