song: Nostalgia (The Day I Knew)
artist: Samara Joy
album: Linger Awhile (2022)
writers: Music by Fats Navarro (1947) / Lyrics by Samara Joy

vocal: Samara Joy
electric jazz guitar: Pasquale Grasso
double bass: David Wong

This is a full transcription of Samara Joy’s “Nostalgia (The Day I Knew)”: of the vocal, guitar, and bass parts. The original composition (in G), “Nostalgia”, was first recorded in late-1947, written by trumpet-player Fats Navarro, who also played the incredible solo on it. This recording consists of theme–solo–theme, and Samara Joy has repurposed the entire thing (transposed down to D♭) as a 3m30s-long melody for her original lyric “The Day I Knew” (with “Fats” included as the first-person narrator). This is a new Jazz gem that revives the old tradition – and does so with style and breath-taking technique. Enjoy!

“ … that I really gravitated towards: trumpeter by the name of Fats Navarro, who had a tremendous impact on this music – unfortunately, only lived to be 26 years old. But he wrote this melody and played this solo, and it’s just so melodic, and it just tells a story, I feel like. So I wanted to put lyrics to it that would paint a picture as if he had lived to see the influence that he had on trumpeters to come. I used the model of my own parents for the lyrics – they’re celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary this coming November. So I just wanted to tell a story of Fats if he had been married for 50 years, or something like that, and looked back on his life. ”
– Samara Joy @ Live from Emmet’s Place (2022)