At the end of February I got to hang out with my younger brother who is an avid Jazz on vinyl fanatic.
(he's also a stone's throw away from his PhD at Vanderbilt )

In the course of a conversation he asked me if i'd heard the ...



...Freddie Freeloader release by Jon Hendricks.

He was particularly taken by the lyrics Jon wrote to the Miles Davis instrumental composition Freddie Freeloader which directly utilize the melodies from the the solos played by Wynton Kelly, Miles, Coltrane and Cannonball.

Btw, this is nothing new for Jon Hendricks.
He'd been doing this kind of thing since his Lambert, Hendricks and Ross days.
(If you want to know where Manhattan Transfer got their concept from, look no further.)

Here's the rundown:
Wynton Kelly piano solo sung by Bobby McFerrin
Miles Davis trumpet solo sung by Al Jarreau
John Coltrane tenor solo sung by Jon Hendricks
Cannonball Adderley alto solo sung by George Benson

All four sing the horn section parts (with Bobby McFerrin singing the piano fills) at the intro and outro of the piece.

So when I received the Jon Hendricks disc from him as a birthday present yesterday I decided to put it to the test.

This morning on the way to work I fired up the Freddie Freeloader track from...



...Kind of Blue

My point here was to mentally memorize a few of the key instrumental phrases and then see how accurately the singers sang them. From the opening strains of the Jon Hendricks version it was obvious that the arrangement was spot on.

It was really amazing how each of the vocalists were able to stick so closely to the improvised melodies.
But then again, when you're dealing with true professionals...

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

whoa...

TheRealFiness said:

Yeah and it's deep too.




tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

yeah i was sittin here like "oh dayum" lol

yet another org music recommendation that I need to pick up. Thx (again) tA.

Ok, I downloaded the song from iTunes. Very cool. Your right, it is tight. I wish I had the lyrics. Some of them are difficult to make out. Taking your cue, I played it back to back with KOB. Impressive. How do you like the rest of the album?