Tommy Flanagan
Piano Solo on
Strode Rode

About

Closing out the solo section, this piano improvisation spans two choruses of the 40-bar AABA form at a brisk 262 BPM. Tommy Flanagan follows with two choruses of piano that navigate the challenging 40-bar form with characteristic elegance, his bebop-rooted approach providing a refined contrast to Rollins's more muscular improvisational style. The 40-bar form provides a defined harmonic landscape for the improvisation. Coming after Sonny Rollins's tenor sax solo, this is the final improvisation before the ensemble returns to the head.

Tommy Flanagan was 25 to 26 years old at the time.