SwingJournal #4

All Mornin' Long: Trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane play the melody in harmony with each other. When they play the certain figures on the first chorus, Red Garland fills in behind them. This is typical call and response-type movement. The best example of this type of interplay occurs on Wynton Kelly's fills in "Freedie the Freeloader", Miles Davis . On the second chorus, Donald Byrd and John Coltrane still keep playing the same melody, but Red Garland plays more behind them and for a moment, it sounds as if Ray Charles is the one doing the comping.

This Red Garland composition "All Mornin' Long" sounds very similar to Jimmy Smith's blues "Back to the Chicken Shack". I don't know when Jimmy Smith composed this song, but it is clear that Jimmy Smith recorded this tune in 1960 and this is one of his most well-known compositions. Red Garland recorded "All Mornin' Long" in 1956 and credits himself as the composer. Hopefully there was an agreement between Jimmy Smith and Red Garland, or maybe they just didn't care that much about their own compositions.

After the melody, rhythm section creates a simple marching band effect. This also reminds me of Benny Golson's "Blues March" of Art Blakey and Jazz Messengers, then John Coltrane takes an amazing solo. Miles Davis once said his favorite John Coltrane recordings take place in the 1950's. His idea is endless and flows like a long river. Donald Byrd takes the second solo.

They Can't Take That Away from Me Audio File

Download Sheet Music for Red Garland's They Can't Take That Away From Me

Solo Guitar Arrangement/Performance by Hideaki Tokunaga

Our Delight: Compared to the other two tunes on this recording, the tempo is much faster on this composition. This composition is in AABA form, and each section has 8 bars. The trumpeter, Donald Byrd has the leading melody and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane plays the harmonized lower melody. Byrd and Coltrane blend nicely with each other.

The rhythm section on this recording in addition to Red Garland are George Joyner on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Many of us might be more familiar with similar trio with bassist Paul Chambers. The Garland- Joyner-Taylor trio is also very tight when supporting horn players. On the other two tunes of this recording, John Coltrane and Donald Byrd are like a yacht and the rhythm section is a big calm ocean. On this tune, the horn section is like a speedy motor boat and the rhythm section are an ocean liner in a storm. The B section is taken care of by Red Garland's strong block chording. This reminds me of pianists from different jazz eras like Erroll Garner or Ahmad Jamal.

They extended two bars as a little interlude for John Coltrane to enter the first solo. Before Coltrane finishes his solo, Donald Byrd comes in as a second soloist, and briefly overlaps Trane. Byrd's bright and clear trumpet sound is reminiscent of Clifford Brown's sound. In my opinion, there are three trumpet players who follow in Clifford Brown's big shoes. They are Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan. I would say that Donald Byrd might have the closest style to Clifford Brown by listening to Byrd's phrasing and the tone of instrument. Many great trumpet players have been through Art Blakey's Jazz Messangers and these three players are no exception.

Freddie Hubbard is well known for his success as a member of VSOP session or fusion era on CTI Records. Lee Morgan is known for being a leading Blue Note Records artist and his composition "Sidewinder" is one of the most famous jazz tunes. Donald Byrd might be the most underrated and the least known trumpeter among these three. Ironically Byrd's biggest hit is probably his collaboration with the Hip Hop artists of the 1990's.

After Donald Byrd's trumpet solo, Red Garland is the third soloist on this track. Despite of my earlier comments about Red Garland's block chord performance, Red Garland starts his solo with lyrical single note. On his second chorus, shaft melodies are played by horn section and Red responds with all single 8th notes and triplets notes. On his third chorus, the horn players lay out and play the shaft melody and Red Garland insist on playing single notes. However on the B section on this chorus, he switches not only to a block chords solo but also to tricky hemiola beats. Because of this hemiola, John Coltrane hesitates to come back the in with the melody. If they had recorded this performance after 1970's, the engineers would have fixed Coltrane's entrance with advance recording technologies. I believe that the true beauty has been kept and these mistakes are also a part of their great performance. On the B section of the head out chorus, Art Taylor's tight 8 bar fills can be heard.