Scrapple From the Apple (Blue Mitchell’s version)

Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Roy Brooks (drums). From the album Blue’s Moods (1960).

In Charlie Parker’s first surviving recording when he was still a teenager, he is heard improvising on the chord changes of Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose”. A few months later, Parker played an impressive 32-bar solo on this theme in a recording with Jay McShann’s band.

It was common for bebop musicians to create new themes on the harmonic structure of old popular tunes, so Parker composed “Scrapple From the Apple” on the harmonies of Fats Waller’s song, but he changed the chords of the bridge for those of “I Got Rhythm”. During the second half of the 1950s, many modern jazz saxophonists, like Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt or Lee Konitz, made versions of this theme.

After a brief introduction of Brooks on drums, Mitchel plays the main melody of the song at fast tempo and Kelly takes care of the bridge. After a drumroll of Brooks, Mitchel begins his solo at full speed, but measuring his phrases well with exquisite taste. Then Brooks plays his drumroll again to give way for Kelly, who performs a carefully constructed solo full of unexpected turns. Mitchell comes back to swap a four-bar solo with Brooks and then re-expose the theme.