The concert's first ballad arrives at the midpoint with Vernon Duke's classic trumpet showpiece taken at 57 BPM. Brecker delivers one chorus on trumpet over the 32-bar AABA form, Cohen follows with one chorus on piano, and Nakamura adds half a chorus on acoustic bass. The brief, restrained solos suit a tune forever associated with intimate trumpet balladry — Vernon Duke composed it in 1935, and Bunny Berigan's celebrated 1937 recording established it as one of the great jazz trumpet vehicles. Brecker's reading acknowledges that lineage while filtering it through his own modern harmonic sensibility. The ten-minute performance provides the evening's most contemplative moment, a dramatic contrast with the fifty-plus solo choruses of the preceding uptempo numbers. Coming between the driving Invitation and the bebop pyrotechnics of Donna Lee, this ballad gives both the musicians and the audience a chance to reset before the second half's intensity.
