"Someday We'll All Be Free" - Clifford Adams

"Someday We'll All Be Free" (PDF) from the Regina Belle album, Stay With Me.

This is just a quick update. I've been busy transcribing horn charts for a gig later in the summer, so I haven't had time to work on the "funky good stuff." But here's a tune from the gig that features a nice trombone solo, Regina Belle's version of the Donny Hathaway anthem, "Someday We'll All Be Free."

The featured trombonist is Clifford Adams (thanks to Steve Nixon for pointing this out to me). The tempo marking is 60 beats per minute, which allows a lot of space for subdivision the beat. The lines are played mostly legato, which requires a solid stream of air support in your playing, while the swung feel allows you to syncopate and accent the offbeats.

The brilliance of this solo is that it remains mostly in one octave and puts the emphasis on the melodic qualities. It stays within the Ab major scale during the lyrical passages, but shifts into the harmonic and melodic minor scales for the more rhythmical lines to create some dissonance and tension. If you can get comfortable with the quick rhythms, this solo could be used as a good warmup exercise.

Here’s a YouTube video of Clifford Adams playing the Coltrane standard “Mr. P.C.”