Booker Little’s date, Out Front, is perhaps his best recording, followed closely by Booker Little And Friend. both are standouts because of excellent writing and blowing but what puts Out Front out front are the personnel choices: Eric Dolphy on woodwinds and Julian Priester on trombone, with the rhythm section of Max Roach on percussion, Ron Carter or Art Davis on bass, and Don Friedman on piano. the addition of Eric Dolphy, who doubles on bass clarinet and flute, opens up more textural possibilities for Little’s writing, which he takes full advantage of. also, to my ear, because the record features only original material by Little, Out Front sounds like a more personal vision. the 7 songs feel closely related and flow into and out of each other. in these days of 20 song recordings, you don’t often hear “whole” records anymore. somewhat like Kind Of Blue, Out Front is a brief but emphatic statement of an artist’s vision that leaves a listener wanting more but doesn’t leave him feeling short-changed. the title, “Out Front” also suggests that Little saw this record as his introduction to the world as a bandleader. “Hazy Hues” begins with a mysterious unison line over a two chord progression:
[F min / / ] [Gb7 / / ] [F min / / ] [F min / / ]
Little, with Dolphy on flute, plays the first phrase. this is answered by Priester’s trombone along with the rhythm section 
featuring Roach on tympami. Little and Dolphy play a second line which is again followed by the other musicians. after a brief cadenza, played by Little over the same progression as above, the main melody begins in 5/4 time. the first four bars of the progression look like this:
[Bb min (maj7) / / / / ] [G min9 (b5) / / / / ]
[Eb min11 / / / / ] [B13 (b5) / / / / ]
the horns outline the Bb min(maj7) chord in the style of a musical canon. the other horns then support Little as he states the rest of the melodic phrase over the next three chords. what a beautiful progression! 3 of the 4 chords utilize the sound of an augmented triad (A Db F) and, excepting the Eb min11 chord, retain the essential color of the first chord. the next part of the progression is a group of Bb minor chords that features a moving tone, played by the two lower horns, that starts on the 5th and goes up by half steps to the sixth, then back down to the b6th:
[Bb min / / Bb min (b6) / ] [Bb min6 / / Bb minb6 / ]
[E13 / / Eb13 / ] [Eb13 / / / / ]
the Bb minb6 chord makes a strong move to an E7b13 and then to an Eb13 chord to end the phrase. Little often uses a three horn cluster in his arrangements that has the outer voices spread out over a major 7th 
with the inner voice either a fourth or a tritone away from the bottom voice. the bottom horn voice is then positioned a minor 7th above the bass voice. depending on the placement of the middle horn, Little gets a nice, open dominant or minor thirteenth sound. with the next phrase, Little crunches the horns together into tight clusters over a Db in the bass. the first cluster is Eb, E, Ab. the second is an A major triad in first inversion. following that, the first cluster is transposed up a fourth: Ab, A, Db. the final cluster is G, Bb, F#. the phrase is then ended with two min (maj7) chords. notating the fourth chord in this sequence is a little iffy. my guess is this:
[Db min9 / / Db min (b6) / ] [Db min (b6) / / G dim (maj7)/Db / ]
[Eb min (maj7) / / / / ] [Db min (maj7) / / / / ]
the next phrase starts like the last but moves in a different direction:
[Db min9 / / D maj9 / / ] [F# min7 / / / / ]
[Bb min (maj7) / / E (maj7#11)/ Bb__Ab maj13]
[G7 (b5) / / Ab13 / ] [A/G / / / / ] [A/G / / / / ]
the Bb min(maj7) chord starts a moving line in the two bottom horns that is just plain sick. the bottom voice moves along a diminished scale and finally lands on an E (in the A/G) chord. the middle voice runs along a Bb min scale, then to the third of the G7 (b5) and Ab13 chords and comes to rest on an A. the E finds resolution by moving to F in Bb min (maj7) when the melody is restated, while the A brings to mind the major 7th of the initial chord of the melody. the reason i labeled the last chord of this sequence A/G is because i couldn’t hear a seventh. the quality of the chord is “hazy”. the forceful return to the initial melody puts all ambiguity to rest. really beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated writing by Little, who at the time of this recording was around 23 years old(!) after the restatement of the melody, the song moves to a short coda section:
[Ab min / / Ab min/Gb / ] [E maj7 (#11) / / A13 (#11) / ] [Gb13 (#11) / / / / ]
[C min7 (b5) / / B ma7 (#11) / ] [Eb min7 / / / / ]
[C min7 (b5) / / B ma7 (#11) / ] [Eb min7 / / / / ]
some more nice counterpoint under the melody by the bottom voices. like before, many of the chords in this sequence share very similar colorings. the first three all have an Ab minor sound over changing bass notes, the next two are dominant chords with identical alterations, a minor third apart, and the last six chords have an Eb minor sound over the bass notes. theoretically speaking, many of the chords pairings are perhaps tenuously related. i like the idea of imagining harmonic progressions as colors on a canvas with varying degrees of lightness, saturation and hue, that bleed into and out of each other. i like hearing things that i can’t quite explain. there are many such instances on this record, which is what makes this recording so special to my eyes… the last section, a vamping interlude that is used as a segue into the solos, is a series of horn clusters over an Ab in the bass. i won’t even bother to try and notate the progression. just listen to it… Max Roach switches back to tympani during this section. the sound is really tense and martial, almost like a fanfare heralding the arrival of some high ranking group of dignitaries. in this case, they are Booker Little, followed closely by Eric Dolphy and Julian Priester, all of whom blow great solos… check it out.
BOOKER LITTLE- “HAZY HUES” (mp3)
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The solo below by Booker Little is from the song “Booker’s Blues”, that can be found on his record BOOKER LITTLE AND FRIEND. i transcribed the lead sheet in an earlier post and have finally gotten around to pulling his solo off the record. the blowing form and chord progression is a bit different from that of the head. it alternates between a 12 bar minor blues and an 8 bar section (2 bars of Ab minor and 2 bars of Eb minor repeated once). Little displays his great virtuosity and passion in this solo, playing intriguing melodic ideas and spectacular 16th note bursts. the thing i really enjoy about his lines is his use of the melodic minor scale. those major 6ths and 7ths are not as prevalent in improvisation nowadays but they lend a certain energy to minor melodies that a minor 7th doesn’t… beautiful solo!
Booker Little, like Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro, was a young trumpeter who was taken from us before he realized his full potential. but in the time he was here, he left us with several awesome examples of his compositional genuis and deeply moving improvisations. by the time he passed at the age of 23, he had performed with, among others, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Abbey Lincoln and Coleman Hawkins. when i listen to his music i can’t help but wonder where his tremendous gifts would have taken him had he been given more time. some of his standout recordings include Max Roach’s 