This uptempo swinger is as fun as the title implies—but it's still a little tricky with irregular phrase lengths. Besides lead sheets and a bass part, we also have a melody transcription showing both the piano melody and bass from the recording.
True to its title, this is a song you can really have fun with—even though it's a bit of a challenge due to its irregular form. Romp is built on a catchy rhythmic theme over a pedal point in the bass that shifts up a minor third, from E♭ to G♭. This theme appears at the beginning of both the A and B sections, which are each nine measures long. The last five measures of these sections continue the thread of the melody over mostly descending II-V7s with some tasty side-slips. There is a coda that extends these side-slips up and down for two extra measures.
There is no chord symbol on the pedal parts of the A and B section themes, but on the solos E♭6 and G♭7 are played here; on the recording Renee implies a general major sound for both in her right-hand voicings for the melody.
Our lead sheet and bass part come from Renee's original manuscript. In addition we have a melody transcription showing the right-hand line (with a few notable left-hand comping rhythms) of Renee's piano melody, as well as Scott Colley's bass figures and lines, for both in and out heads. As befits a song called Romp, Renee toys around with the melodic rhythms a bit. Scott Colley's pedal lines are a bit simpler than those shown in our bass part. This transcription also includes the setup for the out head from the recording. After the drum solo, the drums play a two-measure rhythmic pattern related to the start of the head twice; the bass then enters for the same pattern two more times (with a double-stop open fifth, which Scott also uses on the head), and the piano left hand joins the bass for two more before the head.
"Art And Soul" was the sixth of Renee Rosnes' eight Blue Note albums as a leader. It's her only album so far with Scott Colley on bass; they have also recorded together with saxophonist Sheila Cooper and trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti. Colley recorded quite a lot in 1999, including his fourth album as a leader, "The Magic Line" as well as on "Dusk" by legendary pianist Andrew Hill.
Few can deny that Renee Rosnes is one of the most important pianists and composers in contemporary jazz. As a child, Renee was initially attracted to classical piano, but became interested in jazz during high school. She went on to study classical piano performance at the University of Toronto but returned to Vancouver to pursue jazz. Renee quickly rose to the top of Vancouver's active jazz scene and performed as a sideman with Joe Farrell and Dave Liebman while still in her teens. Read more...
