This is another Najee soprano solo from the “One Night Alone – Live” box set that I almost didn’t transcribe. But I listened to it a few more times and it grew on me.
This track opens the box set, and is a full-on free-jazz electric odyssey for the first full minute. It settles in to a funky jazz groove (kind of like ‘Superfly’ with a swing feel) and Najee kicks it off with a soprano solo.
There’s some crazy hard stuff to play in this solo. It’s only a minute long, but it’s dense. In bar eleven he starts a 7-1-4 hemiola that you just have to feel. I had a hard time reading the triplet figures starting in bar eighteen. After notating it, I pretty much stopped looking at the page and just listened to it a bunch until I had internalized the patterns as well as I could.
The run in bar 32 sounds like a blur, but when you slow it down, it’s amazing how cleanly he executes it!
Najee - Rainbow Children
- Artist: Najee
- Album: Prince – One Night Alone CD1 (1992)
- Track: Rainbow Children
- Instrument: Soprano Sax
Enjoy!
@SDartSax
8 Replies to “Najee – Rainbow Children”