Vincent Herring on Cherokee in 1993, 2001, and 2020 - Solo Transcriptions for Alto Sax

I recently watched a Facebook Live Stream of Vincent Herring's quartet live at the Vermont Jazz Center, celebrating the 100th birthday of Charlie Parker. The group closed off the set with Carl Allen's arrangement of Cherokee and Vincent played a great solo, as always. I was curious to find other recordings of Vincent on Cherokee and came across a live video on YouTube featuring him with Donald Byrd in 2001 and a 1993 album with Carl Allen entitled "Echoes of Our Heroes." This video features transcriptions of Vincent's solos on each of the three recordings of Cherokee (1993/2001/2020). See timestamps below for each individual solo.

The first rendition of the tune, which appears on "Echoes of Our Heroes," is taken at around 410bpm...check out Vincent's incredible technique and execution even at such a burning tempo. The second recording, with Donald Byrd in 2001, is taken at a slower tempo (not by much - 360bpm). The bridge is also modified to have a challenging series of short ii-V's. Finally, the most recent recording is taken at around 290bpm - this is Carl Allen's arrangement of "Cherokee," which features a Latin (12/8 Afro-Cuban) A section and swing B section.

1. Carl Allen & Manhattan Projects ‎– Echoes Of Our Heroes (1993) 0:07
Drums – Carl Allen
Trumpet – Nicholas Payton
Alto Saxophone – Vincent Herring
Tenor Saxophone – Mark Turner
Piano – Kenny Drew, Jr.
Bass – Christopher Thomas

This record is not available on Spotify or YouTube, but can be purchased on Vincent's website https://www.vincentherring.com/ - definitely worth the $9.99...

2. Donald Byrd - 4/1/01 Delaware State University, Dover DE 1:29
   • Donald Byrd - 4/1/01 Delaware State U...  
Trumpet - Donald Byrd
Alto Saxophone - Vincent Herring
Piano - Eric Reed
Bass - Ira Coleman
Drums - Joe Chambers

3. Vermont Jazz Center Facebook Live Stream of Vincent Herring Quartet (10/24/20) 3:49
https://fb.watch/1xvYGZ6gNr/
Alto Saxophone - Vincent Herring
Piano - David Kikoski
Bass - Yasushi Nakamura
Drums - Carl Allen

#VincentHerring #Cherokee

Transcribed by Wesley Chin