Manuel Valera
Piano Solo on
Doxy

About

Taking the 2nd solo, this piano improvisation spans three choruses of the 16-bar AABA form at a medium swing tempo of 112 BPM. The underlying chord progression is drawn from "Ja-Da," making this a contrafact—a new melody composed over borrowed changes. Composed by Rollins and based on the chord progression of "Ja-Da," "Doxy" follows a compact 16-bar AABA form in B-flat and has been a jam session staple since its debut on the 1954 album Bags' Groove with the Miles Davis Quintet. Situated between Chad Lefkowitz-Brown's tenor sax solo and Ben Tiberio's turn on acoustic bass, it occupies a pivotal spot in the arrangement.

Manuel Valera was 36 to 37 years old at the time.