A medium swinger with a slinky rhythmic feel and subtle harmonic interest,
Sailing is classic Herbie Nichols. The A sections of this 32-measure song begin in B♭ minor but end in B♭ major, heralded by a sudden D♮ in the melody pickup to the fifth measure. Though the next phrase returns to minor, it is harmonized in major for a more bluesy tonality. The bridge goes to D major followed by F major, with an over-the-barline rhythmic pattern in the melody. There is an eight-measure intro unrelated to the head; it’s mostly in B♭ major though with a stepwise “walk down” in the second half.
For his solo piano recording, Anthony Wonsey takes this song at a bouncy medium-up tempo. He takes a few liberties with the melody relative to the original manuscript, changing the melodic direction in the first and fourth measures and adding fills leading into the key changes of the bridge. It’s not hard to imagine Herbie Nichols transforming his own melody in the same ways. As Nichols did on many of his recorded compositions, Wonsey returns to the intro as a coda; he adds a concluding B♭ minor chord. Click on Historical Notes for a clip of Frank Kimbrough playing the melody as written, from the
Herbie Nichols Piano Summit.
Sailing is one of the three songs that Herbie Nichols mentions in his 1946 article for Rhythm magazine as having arranged for Thelonious Monk, though the arrangement has not survived. It’s certainly one of his earlier compositions; the date attached to the manuscript is March 4, 1941. For more details on the Rhythm article, check out the historical notes for
Stratosphere.
Frank Kimbrough played through the melodies of all 24 Herbie Nichols Centennial Project songs at the Herbie Nichols Piano Summit. His version of
Sailing clip] is a bit slower than Anthony Wonsey's recording, but no less swinging.
Check out all the new Herbie Nichols releases: "
The Second Six"
