Chad Lefkowitz-Brown
Tenor Sax Solo on
Yardbird Suite

About

Opening the solo section, this tenor sax improvisation spans four choruses of the 32-bar AABA form at a medium-up swing tempo of 179 BPM. The underlying chord progression is drawn from "Rosetta," making this a contrafact—a new melody composed over borrowed changes. Lefkowitz-Brown opens the solo section with four choruses of tenor saxophone at a medium-up swing tempo of 179 BPM, displaying the clarity of articulation and bebop vocabulary that have become his trademarks. This is the longest solo on the recording in terms of chorus count, suggesting a featured role in the arrangement. The 32-bar AABA form, a staple of the Great American Songbook, offers both structural clarity and ample harmonic terrain for improvisation. Following this solo, Takeshi Ohbayashi takes over on piano.

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown was 27 to 28 years old at the time.