Jerry Bergonzi’s Tenor Sax Solo on ‘Inner Urge’
By Timothy Cummiskey

     Jerry Bergonzi’s tenor sax solo on Joe Henderson’s "Inner Urge, " from the 1991 release Lineage (Red), serves as a good vehicle for guitarists to learn fingerings and picking patterns that effectively adapt tenor sax vocabulary, phrasing and articulation.
      Conceptually, Bergonzi combines motivic development, rhythmic flexibility, voice leading and line connection with a nearly infinite melodic and harmonic vocabulary to create a coherent and spontaneous solo over the 24-bar form.  The solo is transcribed in guitar key.
     Bergonzi develops a short rhythmic motive in measures 1-3 and continues with a longer eighth-note phrase in bars 4-6that consists primarily of arpeggios.  In measures 9-21, he plays a long line with cross rhythms interspersed with longer eighth-note passages.  Note Bergonzi’s voice-leading and articulation concepts in bars 9-15 and 16-21.
     In measures 22-24, Bergonzi introduces a new motive that consists of notes derived from the upper structure triads of the chord changes.  Another long melodic line is played in bars 25-33 consisting of arpeggiated and step-wise lines from the sixth mode of the A melodic minor scale (F#-G#-A-B-C-D-E).
     In bars 33-35, Bergonzi plays a bebop triplet figure consisting of Ab maj7 and Ebmaj7 arpeggios while increasing the rhythmic density.  He plays a "sheets of sound" scale line in measure 36 that is derived from a Bb major scale (Eb Lydian mode).  In bars 37-38, he plays a scalar line derived from a Db Lydian mode.  Note the gradual increase of rhythmic density in this short two-bar phrase.  In measures 39-51, Bergonzi plays a long, connected melodic line.  Note the voice-leading approach he takes with the line over moving parallel major 7th chords.  The melodic line consists mostly of tertian lines and arpeggios.
     Guitarists should take particular note of the suggested guitar articulations above the staff.  They emulate the phrasing and articulation that Bergonzi executes in the solo.  The slur markings indicate hammer-ons and pull-offs (depending on the direction of the line).  Downstroke and upstroke picking are also indicated as well as pick sweeps and rakes.  DB
Guitarist Timothy Cummiskey is a member of the jazz studies faculty at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  He can be reached at cummiskey.2@osu.edu.