Mo' Better Blues

Mo' Better Blues is the title track from Spike Lee's 1990 film of the same name, composed by Bill Lee III, the filmmaker's father and a jazz bassist and composer in his own right. The tune is a concise eight-bar blues built entirely on the B-flat pentatonic scale, giving it a catchy, memorable quality rooted in archaic blues and gospel traditions while retaining a modern jazz-funk edge. Its melody unfolds in a call-and-response pattern between the lead line and rhythm section, and the compact form cycles efficiently as a vehicle for improvisation. The original recording appeared on the Columbia Records soundtrack album Music From Mo' Better Blues, performed by the Branford Marsalis Quartet featuring Terence Blanchard, with Kenny Kirkland, Robert Hurst, and Jeff Watts. The soundtrack topped Billboard's Traditional Jazz Albums chart in 1990. While the tune has not become a widely performed jazz standard, its infectious theme has attracted occasional attention, notably from the jam band Phish, who incorporated it as a riff in several 1990 performances. On AllSolos, Mo' Better Blues is represented by solos from the original 1990 soundtrack recording featuring Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard, as well as a 2017 performance by the Ken Weiner Quintet with solos from Ken Weiner on tenor saxophone and Jun Iida on trumpet.