Jazz

Transcriptions

Pierre Cavalli—Supernovasunk without trace

There’s not enough time for everything, of course; and although I’ve been listening to jazz all my life, my experience of playing it has been somewhat limited. I do, however, have fond memories of playing in both traditional and modern jazz bands for an IBM concert in the ’70s—and also of playing with a friend, on the same occasion (Graham Ball, Where Are You Now?), this fine Bossa Nova duet by the Swiss guitarist Pierre Cavalli (1928–1985). The music was published in 1963, but now seems to be out of print.

Jerome Kern—They Didn’t Believe Mesunk without trace

I forget exactly how long I went to the Spanish Guitar Centre for, but it must have been well over two years. During that time I was given 54 handouts of music, either single sheets or fractions thereof. Most of them were the standard stuff by 19th century composers; but interspersed therein were a few pieces rather less common.

Since the Centre was permanently closed several years ago, I now present one of them here; and as my original copy is yellowed with age and covered in Sellotape, I’ve rescored it in Finale. Bearing in mind that this is a relative beginner’s piece, I’ve also preserved all of the original exhaustive fingering, even though a lot of it may appear redundant.

I’ve also added a few missing rests, and scored the voices in different colours for added clarity.

The title is given only as Jazz Classic 2, but a casual scrutiny reveals the real one. The arranger is not specified, but was presumably Len Williams.

I’m unaware of any recording of this arrangement; and so (for those who may be unfamiliar with the song) the YouTube link is to the film version by Mario Lanza & Kathryn Grayson, who sing it straight, corresponding to the sheet music here; but some singers choose to swing it. You can find Frank Sinatra’s version on YouTube too.

Note that in bars 3, 7, 19, 25 and 27, you only need half-barrés (which Len doesn’t seem to have believed in indicating).