Sweet Pumpkin

Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Roy Brooks (drums). From the album Blue’s Moods (1960).

In the early 1950s different styles were played, such as swing (with the big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie), bebop (with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at the forefront), and mainstream (with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Roy Eldrigde and Harry “Sweets” Edison).

And then there’s Miles Davis, who started out in bebop playing with Charlie Parker, then invented cool jazz (Birth of the Cool, 1949), switched to hard bop (five albums in 1956), then created modal jazz (Kind of Blue, 1959), and a decade later jazz fusion (Bitches Brew, 1970). In short, he was an essential musician in the history of modern jazz. In jazz, styles follow each other quickly, coexist and mix.

This is a lively theme at medium tempo that Mitchell executes with mastery and confidence. Next, Kelly performs his solo serenely and without ups and downs, creating a consistent melodic line. After that, Mitchell comes in with a well-constructed discourse based on carefully selected phrases and finally the group re-exposes the theme.