Song by Marvin Gaye and Edward Townsend arranged by Hemphill for saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone). This arrangement was recorded by the World Saxophone Quartet on the album Rhythm and Blues (1989). The archive includes both Hemphill’s autograph score and a photocopy of the autograph on which Hemphill filled in missing measures and added further corrections and instructions.
Found on: Rhythm and Blues.
From Marty Ehrlich: The process revealed by a comparison of the two scores points to what is so wonderful in this arrangement. Hemphill captures all the different voices within the original song, and adds new ones to the counterpoint, much as Gaye did, with the three top saxes weaving in and out over the baritone’s bass part. Like his arrangements of classic pieces like “Lush Life,” this one reminds me of “Mingus Gold,” his setting of three Charles Mingus compositions for the Kronos Quartet. In that work, the cello part calls to mind the way Mingus would accompany and improvise within his own works.