Your Mother

As recorded on Junk Wagon: The Big Band Album, Your Mother is a New Orleans inspired piece with ample solo space for the trumpet, guitar, all 4 trombones and clarinet. The arrangement begins in F (F7 to Bb7) with only horns and drums (as if the band was playing on parade). This is juxtaposed by the entrance of the bass and guitar in the key of E (E7 to A7). In other words, whenever the horns blow, the key is F (sans bass and guitar), and when the bass and guitar play, it’s back to open strings in the key of E—a battle of the horns and strings! The solo trumpet trades 8’s with each trombone player and then trades 4’s over a double time feel. This gives way to a different solo section for the guitar inspired by Count Basie (think Freddie Green and Sonny Payne) with a gospel walkup at the end of each building vamp layering. This builds to a double-time gospel 5/4 solo with a gospel influenced bass line that is constructed as a rhythmic palindrome. The clarinet (or alto saxophone if preferred) builds a layered solo over this gospel ostinato until there is a climactic “amen” plagal cadence. To finish, there is a recapitulation of the original New Orleans melody, a quick reference to the double-time gospel 5/4 ostinato, and an exaggerated rallentando creating a dramatic conclusion.

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