Recorda Me

**TOMMO** · 07-01-2017, 01:13 PM

What a great tune.

A buddy of mine gave me the head's up on this - never heard of it before. So I bought Joe Henderson's first album "Page One" - great album - original version of "Blue Bossa" and all great tunes , especially the ballad "La Mesha".

Anyway: "Recorda Me" is a great tune to practice improvising (at least for a newbie like me): I can try out all the possibilities over static minor chords (A-7 and C-7 for four bars each) and then wail through a succession of II-V-Is until you reach the turnaround chord of E7#9.

What do the more experienced say?

**jordanklemons** · 07-01-2017, 02:03 PM

I love this tune! Such a great one. It's similar to Blue Bossa (also on that album) in that it seems really simple and easy, but it's surprisingly difficult to really execute artistically and musically. Such a great little gem. Make sure you learn the intro too. It's been so long since I've played this, I gotta go back and re-learn the intro.

Thanks for the reminder!

**Durban** · 07-01-2017, 02:40 PM

[QUOTE=jordanklemons;784786]I. It's similar to Blue Bossa

Great tune i dont get the Blue Bossa connection, both really Fab tunes, i think Recorda-Me is more sophisticated , a Modal start then into the land of ii V s a sort of quasi cherokee bridge vibe down in WT interesting how we all perceive things differently.

**mrcee** · 07-01-2017, 02:44 PM

4 on 6 uses a similar descending series of ii Vs

**TOMMO** · 07-01-2017, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

Make sure you learn the intro too.

Working on it as well - almost a tune by itself.

**mrcee** · 07-01-2017, 03:07 PM

Ditto on the intro

**Alter** · 07-01-2017, 03:21 PM

Its kind of a tricky tune to properly play the melody on the guitar. One of his most classic albums though! I think after inner urge, one of my favorite tunes of his.

**fasstrack** · 07-02-2017, 05:11 AM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

Make sure you learn the intro too. It's been so long since I've played this, I gotta go back and re-learn the intro.

Ha ha. I took an organ player I knew from Holland on a little tour of NW Michigan in '04. There's a longer version of that intro from a later Joe Hen album. We played one restaurant, and everyone was digging in---ears like Dumbo. We took requests---and they were HIP ones. We were nailing everything, and feelin' good about it. We played this, and I didn't play enough bars for the intro. The organ player (who had stayed at my apt. for a week before we left, and we were starting to get on each other's nerves by now) cussed me out. It was pretty funny.

Coda: the organ player had been drinking beer non-stop and wasn't used to all the sun (it was Summer), also not eating. After that last gig I turned around and saw him crumple to the sidewalk. He hit his head, and was unconscious for a few seconds. Scared the s#$t outta me, for a minute when he didn't move, I thought he was dead. We took him to the ER, and he was really scared. But they treated his face, which had been cut badly when he fell, with some stuff. We went back to NY, and he healed well, and went home. He was visually impaired, and asked me to see him to Manhattan on the train. I was bushed, and didn't want to, but of course I had to help the guy out. As the train came, he said 'Great tour', and we hugged. It was dicey for a minute, though...

**A. Kingstone** · 07-02-2017, 10:36 AM

I think Joe wrote this as a teenager. I was picking zits as a teenager.

As always great anecdotes Joel.

**jordanklemons** · 07-02-2017, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by fasstrack

Ha ha. I took an organ player I knew from Holland on a little tour of NW Michigan in '04. There's a longer version of that intro from a later Joe Hen album.

Yeah? Any idea which album? I'd love to hear this!

**jordanklemons** · 07-02-2017, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Durban

i dont get the Blue Bossa connection

It's similar to Blue Bossa in that it seems really simple and easy, but it's surprisingly difficult to really execute artistically and musically.

I find that the more challenging the tune (giant steps, etc) the more we can simply play the changes and the tune will sort of make it seem musical and artistic. But when tunes don't have much happening in them and are on the simpler end of the spectrum, we can't rely on the tune to make it musical... we have to bring that to the table ourselves. Both of these two tunes fall into that category for me. There's a whole not of "not much" happening, then a ii V I in a new key (or a few of them in a row), then back to the original thing that was happening.

**TOMMO** · 07-02-2017, 01:36 PM

I hear you: the challenge is to come up with something musical during the minor chords where there's no harmonic movement....

**fasstrack** · 07-02-2017, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

Yeah? Any idea which album? I'd love to hear this!

I don't remember the title, but it had a picture of him with an Afghan dog on the cover----and some live things recorded in CA with Woody Shaw and George Cables. And I could be remembering incorrectly about the extended intro. You know how your mind can play tricks on you.

But that was quite a night. That organ player, Bob Wijnen, is very busy in Holland. He's a hell of a musician on both piano and organ. He posted something playing a B3 on FB, man it was something. We had a sort of reunion when I tried, but failed, to move to the Hague in '07. He made a recording recently, NY Unforeseen, with your man Bernstein. I haven't heard it, but I bet it's real good. We emailed about exchanging CDs, but never did it...

**fasstrack** · 07-02-2017, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

I find that the more challenging the tune (giant steps, etc) the more we can simply play the changes and the tune will sort of make it seem musical and artistic.

Funny, I never could get into Giant Steps. Too dense and too much to think about. It's just me: I like some 'daylight' between the notes---and chords. You know how certain things just annoy you? Like II-Vs going down in 1/2 steps, say, in Stella. I like the half-diminished chord better. Guess I'm a dark Jew (LOL).

I really DO like Trane's other tunes a lot, like Central Park West, Grand Central, Naima. Straight Street is a MF. The changes seem to move slower in those tunes, or maybe they appealto me more. I just like a lot of space and room to think, being a big Chris Anderson admirer. It just seems like a lot of fast or complicated changes, especially chromatic ones (I know Giant Steps isn't chromatic) sort of shove me into a corner harmonically (and melodically) I don't want to be shoved into. But Giant Steps was a hell of achievement for Trane at the time, and he was a real hard worker, and achiever. I just fear that it was the first (maybe) of what I call 'math puzzle' compositions. Just not my thing...

**fasstrack** · 07-02-2017, 05:24 PM

Just wanna add: The best, most lyrical and musical solo I ever heard on Giant Steps, outside of Trane, was by Tom Harrell, on a record called Paul Robinson: Old and New Friends. EVERY trumpet solo on that recording (all the tunes are jazz standards everyone knows) was a classic. If you still can find it, grab it. Dunno if it ever came out on CD---not that people even buy THOSE anymore...

**TOMMO** · 07-03-2017, 10:00 AM

fasstrack: Joe Henderson also recorded the tune under the title "No Me Esqueca" so it was probably this one:

**fasstrack** · 07-03-2017, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by TOMMO

fasstrack: Joe Henderson also recorded the tune under the title "No Me Esqueca" so it was probably this one:

You are correct, sir (I'm dating myself). That's what I was referring to, the title slipped my mind.

Thanks. What was the album's title? I used to have it, and remember it was on Milestone...