St.Thomas and Soca

[ChunkyMunky]

Anyone ever played 'St.Thomas' before? I'm thinking of prepping it for a jam session and I'm a bit unsure where to begin. I've got a basically pseudo-Samba, 2-beat feel down but I'm trying to really make it gleam and shine. Any thoughts?

[Bilbo]

Depends how you play it. 'St Thomas' is a Sonny Rollins composition and the original was a calypso that eventually went into a swing groove after Max Roach's drum solo (3.51). You can do whatever you want with it. That's the whole point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA2XIWZxMKM

There are also solo sax versions like this one from Branford Marsalis (I love this one - tried transcribing it for bass but it got too hard)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QC8Bmf_KRA

[The Jaywalker]

According to a drummer friend of mine, who hails from Barbados, St Thomas was originally a folk song from that area his grandmother used to sing to him. Looks like Sonny heard it at some point and the rest is history ;-)

[tinyd]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1454928320' post='2974171']


There are also solo sax versions like this one from Branford Marsalis (I love this one - tried transcribing it for bass but it got too hard)

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QC8Bmf_KRA[/media]
[/quote]

That Brandford Marsalis versions is great, I hadn't heard that one before. This is a really nice Joshua Redman version that starts off solo and then the band come in:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbmEiC7CRss