Tenor Madness by Sonny Rollins Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1568508

Sonny Rollins wrote and recorded this track for the Tenor Madness album he recorded in 1956 with fellow tenor saxophonist John Coltrane.

It's a 12 bar blues in Bb, rather than the traditional three chord 12 bar blues it's more of a jazz blues with II-V progressions and diminished chords. I have added an 8 bar introduction and ending, as well as a solo over two choruses. Overall this arrangement is 5 pages and 76 bars long.

Note on chord symbols:

The 'alt' chord symbol represents altered dominant and altered extensions such as the b9, #9 and b13. Writing in these extensions in the chord symbol quickly creates very confusing looking chord symbols, which defeats the point of their use. For example G7alt compared to G7b9, G7b9b13 or even G7b9#9b13.

You can quickly end up with a chart that looks more like a chemistry equation than music. Once you understand that these extensions are simply part of the minor key, and may be used interchangeably there is no need to write them all down.

Similarly, the triangle symbol represents major chords and major 7 chords, but also common extensions such as major 7, major 6, major 9, and major 6/9 chords.

(For dominant and major #11 chords I usually notate this extension however as it does not fit easily into a minor or major key, this chord seems to come out of nowhere at times, and it's worth mentioning this less common extension.)