Ornettology – Jack Walrath

A lively song in a distinctly Ornettological style. Jack Walrath captures the sing-song, stop-and-start quality of Ornette Coleman's lines while keeping plenty of his own signature melodic slipperiness. This song is really written for a two-horn quartet with no piano (like Coleman's classic lineup)–there is a bass part throughout the head but no chord symbols. The general key center is B♭ but with several side-slips and ambiguous harmonies–we show no key signature.

The form of the head is AABBCD. The two A sections begin with four measures of 4/4, with a chromatic ascending walking bass line, followed by four measures of stop-time in 3/4. The two B sections have slightly different melodies over a rhythmic bass figure; the first is eight measures and the second adds two beats of rest at the end. C is really the "bridge"; it's four measures long at half the original tempo, featuring a smoother triplet melody. D returns to the first tempo, riffing the first phrase from the A section to a final tritone hit (Bb melody over E bass). Solos are open, beginning on a vamp based on the B section bass figure; the bass eventually walks freely until the next soloist.

About the arrangement: For this song we have first and second horn parts and a bass part. There is also a two-staff Concert Condensed Score, with the horns together on the top staff and bass on the bottom staff. The A section starts with the horns in unison, but the rest of the head is mostly split between octaves and harmonies, primarily fourths and fifths. The alto sax second part has some lines unison with the first part where octaves would get too low; similarly the trombone second part is an octave below the first part where unison would be too high.

For more from "Bill Moring & Way Out East" check out Jack Walrath's Spenta Mainyu and Steve Johns' River's Edge. This album and "Spaces In Time," by the same lineup plus pianist Steve Allee, are the only recordings so far of Jack Walrath with any of the other players.