song: Twisted
artist: Wardell Gray
album: single (1949) / Tenor Sax Favourites (LP, 1951) / Wardell Gray Memorial, Volume One (album, 1955)
composer: Wardell Gray (1949)

tenor saxophone: Wardell Gray
double/upright bass: Tommy Potter

(piano: Al Haig)
(drums: Roy Haynes)

This is a note-for-note transcription of the saxophone and bass on the Bebop classic “Twisted”. This Bebop composition is based on a 12-bar Blues round, spiced up by one tasteful reharmonisation after another by the great Al Haig. The theme is catchy, and Wardell Gray improvised one melodic melodic phrase another. This is gold for saxophonists to practice. The band did four takes on the 11th of November 1949, and this is the second take; the reissue of the Memorial, Volume One album includes the three alternate takes, and from there it is clear how much the band experimented with arrangement and tempo, even in the studio. The band was then named Al Haig Quartet featuring Wardell Gray, but this composition has since become known in Wardell Gray’s name. The tune is probably most famous for the 1952 vocalese adaption by Jazz singer Annie Ross (see video below). For this she selected rounds 1, 1, 3–5, 10. The vocalese version had another few days in the sung with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross on their 1959 album, and later with Joni Mitchell on Court and Spark in 1974 (see my transcription of this). Enjoy!