One Cool Night – Eli "Lucky" Thompson

One Cool Night is a great example of that mellow "cool" sound that many Lucky Thompson compositions have. It's a two-part song with a call-and-response structure, based on the changes of the standard 'Swonderful. The A sections of the head have a Latin groove, going to swing 4-feel on the bridge. Our Concert Condensed Score shows the bass rhythm for the A section; this is also the rhythm section part.

About the arrangement: The two horn parts play together in the beginning of the call-and-response phrases in the A section, but the 1st part holds the second note out while the 2nd part fills in with the response. We feel this is important enough to this song that we have only 1st and 2nd parts rather than making one of them the lead sheet. On the recording, the tenor sax has the bridge melody alone; the 1st parts have the melody cued in here so that it could be played in unison or octaves instead.

Our Concert Condensed Score shows the tenor sax 2nd part an octave above the sounding range. Because the 2nd part responses are still below the 1st part if they are in the same octave, our trombone 1st part (an octave below the other 1st parts) still works with a 2nd part in the same range. Likewise, the trumpet 1st part can also be read as a tenor 1st part. We have a baritone sax 2nd part in the same range as the recorded tenor part, as it goes below the range of the alto sax; alto players can still read this part as a 2nd part an octave up to play it in the same range as a trumpet, alto sax or guitar 1st part.

Check out Easy Going for another Lucky Thompson song recorded with the same rhythm section, again from his trip to Paris in 1956. Trumpeter Emmett Berry was in Paris from late 1955 to mid-1956, mostly playing with pianist Sammy Price. Berry and Thompson had previously recorded together in August 1955, on "Papa" Jo Jones' album "The Jo Jones Special."

All titles on "Thompson Plays For Thomson."