Critical Listening #8: Love For Sale

For my listening this week, I chose Dexter Gordon's "Love For Sale". It was released in 1962.

In this piece we can hear drums, piano, bass, and tenor saxophone. The tune has a form of AABA.

Intro -- piano comping, drums with a latin beat, bass
8 bar A
8 bar A
8 bar B
8 bar A
2 chorus sax solo
2 chorus piano solo
1 chorus sax solo
8 bar A
vamp -- fade out

When Gordon plays the first chorus, he plays the theme in a very square, bop manner but the tune is still recognizable. Underneath this the bass player plays a rhythmic bassline (not walking) while the pianist comps. The drummer plays a slow four on the toms and rims, but switches to a cymbal sound in double time on the B section.

Gordon's first solo section starts with a four note pick-up into his first chorus. His solo hints more at Lester Young's style than Coleman Hawkin's. He plays along the chords instead of "in" them. His style is slightly more relaxed in his solo than his angular rendition of the main theme. He takes similar riffs and repeats them over different chord progressions. He plays with little to no vibrato. At one point, however, he uses a slow tremolo and he also uses many blues notes which add a different flavor. In his second solo section (after the piano solo), he begins with a variation on the melody from "Mexican Hat Dance". His solo runs straight into the main theme to end the piece.

The piano solo is less angular than the sax solo. It seems to me to have more of a cool bop, rather than a hard bop feel. The pianist plays lots of series of triplet grace notes as well as using the blues scale extensively. The solo is much lighter than the sax solo and seems more at ease. The higher register only adds to this impression. In some instances tension is built by using dissonance and repetition. The piano solo ends with some block chords that overlap with the beginning of Gordon's second solo section.

The rhythm section on this piece is not particularly entertaining, but they keep a good beat and tempo. The drummer offers the most variation with changes to double time and differing drumming styles. The drummer uses a latin feel on the rims of the snares with the toms, but also uses a very "static-y" cymbal feel during both the solos and the B sections.

This piece is definitely a hard bop piece. It has the jam session feel as well as angular melodies over the chord progressions, a rhythm section with a comping pianist, and a solo member backed by just a rhythm section.