Roadlife – James Williams

Simple and concise like many other James Williams songs, Roadlife is a particularly fun one—check out how many people have recorded it! It's a 16-measure blues with a lyrical, memorable theme. The IV chord is held for four measures instead of two, similar to Fletcher Henderson's Soft Winds and Hank Mobley's Advance Notice. Instead of going back to the tonic in the ninth measure, the changes go to a circle of fourths, starting with two measures of stop-time. The final tonic chord is delayed until the last measure, anticipated by G♭maj7 and Bmaj7; these chords are sometimes left out as in the intro choruses on this original recording: two choruses of trio "walking" without a melody or soloist.

The melody is slightly different in all recordings; our lead sheet comes from James' manuscript. On this recording the melodic rhythm in the ninth through 11th measures is a little different from the lead sheet. The pickup to the tenth measure starts on beat 4 rather than the "and" of 3; leading into the next measure the pickup is a quarter note on 4 followed by a half note on the downbeat, not anticipated as written.

The lead sheets under each album cover are identical.

This second "Magical Trio" album was recorded five months after the first, which features Art Blakey instead of Elvin Jones. Ten years later, the "Magical Trio 2" lineup reconvened for the DIW album "Awesome!" Ray Brown and Elvin Jones first recorded together in 1969 on two trio sessions with Phineas Newborn, Jr.—James Williams' mentor. They also appear together on a 1976 Newborn album as well as Ray's "Something For Lester" trio with Cedar Walton from 1977.

This live large ensemble version by Jonathan Batiste is about the same tempo as the James Williams recording. Like Mulgrew Miller's, this arrangement adds a bit of embellishment to the melody. The pickups to the 9th and 10th measures both begin on beat 4. Extended solos by Batiste and tenor saxophonist Matt Marantz show just how fun this song is to play and improvise on!

Jonathan Batiste is best known as the musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022. This live performance video features an expanded version of what became the Late Show Band, then known as Stay Human (Batiste, Eddie Barbash, Ibanda Ruhumbika and Joe Saylor). Several members of the band in this video were studying at Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard at the time. Trumpeter Josh Gawel is a member of the popular brass band Lucky Chops.

A quartet version close in both tempo and melody to the original James Williams recording. Pianist Eric Reed begins the head alone, with the full band coming in at the pickup to the ninth measure. The melody phrases in both the third and sixth measures are smoothed out with F♯ and B♮ on the fourth beat respectively, for smooth chromatic lines. A vamp ending is added based on the 13th and 14th measures.

The lineup on this album is almost the same as on Eric Reed's 2017 album "A Light In Darkness," which has Ben Williams on bass instead of Mike Gurrola.

Lucky Thompson's Sun Out, coming soon to jazzleadsheets.com, was also recorded by Eric Reed on his 2011 album "Something Beautiful."

A quintet version with unison horns, this recording is quite straightforward with the same melody phrasing as the Eric Reed recording. Like James Williams' original, it starts with rhythm section choruses before the head. There is yet another ending which tags the last four measures.

Pianist Glenn Zaleski is featured in several exclusive jazzleadsheets.com videos and Minus You tracks; he's also done many transcriptions for us. "The Question" is his fourth album as a leader.

Trumpeter Adam O'Farrill was studying at Manhattan School Of Music at the same time as both trumpeters playing in the Jonathan Batiste video of this song, Josh Gawel and Kyle Athayde.