"Contrafact" is a modern jazz composition by Walter Smith III, built on the chord changes of "Like Someone in Love," the 1944 Jimmy Van Heusen standard. True to its title, the piece is a contrafact that reframes those familiar harmonics with a completely new melody, but Smith takes the concept a step further by recasting the changes in 5/4 time, giving the tune a propulsive, tightrope-walking feel far removed from the original ballad setting. Smith wrote the piece for his fifth album as a leader, Twio (2018, Whirlwind Recordings), where it features dual tenor saxophones with Joshua Redman joining Smith on the front line alongside Christian McBride on bass and Eric Harland on drums. The pianoless, guitarless arrangement reflects Smith's interest in the Sonny Rollins trio tradition, leaving the harmony open and exposed without a chordal instrument to anchor it. Smith sent only the melody to Redman in advance, with no predefined harmonic direction, aiming for spontaneous, unrehearsed interplay. An earlier version of the composition appeared on Smith's album Reminiscent with tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, who reportedly improvised counterpoint and harmony lines due to the tune's difficulty. The piece remains a deep cut in the contemporary jazz repertoire rather than a widely performed standard, but it stands as a compelling example of metric displacement as a compositional tool for reimagining classic harmonic material.
