Dexter Gordon playing Blue Bossa on tenor.  Really like this song, hadn’t heard Dexter’s version until recently.  Great sax player!

When I was playing clarinet more for a month during the summer, I played Blue Bossa.  Knew it pretty well on saxophone and knew the changes, so it wasn’t too hard to transfer over.

The changes start with four bars that are like the blues – the minor sixth chord for two bars and then the minor four chord for two bars, then there’s a minor two five one, a major two five one, and back to that first minor two five one before going back to the top.

There are some alterations for the chords.  It seems like alterations happen more often on the dominant chords.  The ii V I sound is very known in music, so it seems like the alterations make it more interesting in the way you’re getting to the resolution, less “Mr. Rodgers” as Paul Contos said.