Sidewinder changes

[sandyB]

Hi,
I've been learning the Sidewinder lately - it is a really funky tune. The harmonic movement is interesting and quite tricky because despite having an overall quite simple blues progression to it (over 24 bars), it has this emphasised half-step change within each bar (e.g. D7 to Eb7 in the first 8 bars). This backs up the semitone rise going on in the melody really well - but how do you improvise over it? Any tricks for simplifying ...ideas gratefully received.

p.s anyone know what lee morgan is doing on his solo? - sounds great!

sandy

[zadu]

Great tune, fun to play. Lee plays bebop blues with funky chromatic third chorus huh?
The Tenor (Joe Henderson I think) really blows me away.

[Doxy]

This tune is really just an Eb blues but the form is extended to 24 bars rather than 12:

So you have:

I7 (8 bars) / IV7 (4 bars) / I7 (3 bars) / iii7 VI7b9 (1 bar) / ii7 V7 (4 bars) / I7 (3 bars) / break on last bar.

If you just treat it like a typical bop blues with longer phrases, you should have plenty of luck. The fact that you have more time on each chord should give you plenty of room to stretch out and develop ideas. Joe Henderson gets locked into some nice motivic ideas on his solo.

Hope this helps.

[sandyB]

Thankyou both Zadu and Doxy for your helpful info. I have been playing along with the tune a lot and am starting to pick up some of those nice phrases from Henderson's solo. cheers!