SOPHISTICATED LADY – Duke Ellington

My solo bass arrangement of Sophisticated Lady in Ab. At first, I just set out to become very comfortable with the melody. But as a bass player, I like to hear the context of the melody note against the root note. As I kept wanting to add more accompaniment, I revisited and explored new solo piano versions of the tune. One I always come back to is Monk’s version on his Duke Ellington Songbook album. I might have borrowed a few of his ideas. I recorded this in preparation for a Ellington / Stevie Wonder tribute concert, so I also snuck in a Stevie quote from Isn’t She Lovely.