Translation – Eli "Lucky" Thompson

For this song, the standard What's New has been "translated" to a swinging new post-bop head on the same changes.What's New is frequently played as a ballad, so the possibilities offered by these changes at a medium tempo such as this are not often explored. Unlike the original song, the melody on the bridge is not a transposition of the A section melody.

The lead sheet editions feature a single instrument playing the melody. You can play Lucky's original two-horn arrangement using the Tenor Sax 1st part and Trombone 2nd part editions.

About the arrangement: The horns play the melody mostly in unison or octaves, going into harmony at the end of each eight-measure phrase as well as at the third measure of the A and C sections. The Concert Condensed Score shows the horn parts in treble clef, an octave higher than they sound.

For the lead sheet, most of the melody is written in the register that Lucky plays on the recording; the exception is the first two measures, where because of the lower unison horns it is written an octave higher. In this range, it makes sense to include the lower notes of the third measure's two-part harmony as the melody.

The out head on the recording is taken from the bridge; on the lead sheet we have made the bridge the D.S., but show the option of returning to the beginning (D.C.) for the whole head out.

This first of the two Thompson-Pettiford albums, like the second , was recorded in two sessions: one with a trio and the other with a quintet. The trio personnel is the same as on Volume 2 (as heard on Little Tenderfoot and The Plain But The Simple Truth), while the quintet heard here differs from Volume 2's quintet (N R #1, N R #2, and a trio from the same session on Once There Was) only by the presence of pianist Hank Jones instead of Don Abney.

In between the recording of these two albums, Lucky went to Paris and recorded To A Mornin' Sunrise, among many other original compositions.

Interested in learning more about Lucky Thompson? Check out historian Noal Cohen's site.