Diane Schuur, Count Basie

You Can Have It

You Can Have It is the result of a collaboration between legendary saxophonist/arranger Frank Foster and Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Morgan Ames. This arrangement was specifically crafted to feature vocalist Diane Schuur with the Count Basie Orchestra, which Foster was directing at the time, and is a high-energy romp throughout that is sure to leave a smile on the face of your performers and audiences alike.

Things kick off with, as is so often the case with Basie arrangements, a brief piano solo to set the brisk tempo before the full band roars to life at measure 9. Some bebop-influenced lines in the saxes and trumpets provide an exciting spark to the performance just in time for Schuur's entrance with the melody at measure 17. The tune follows a slightly unusual AABAA form, with the horn backgrounds providing just enough punch without becoming overwhelming. The melody is followed by an 8 bar ensemble interlude at measure 57, with the trumpets and saxes passing off some more bop-ish lines back and forth before the spotlight returns to Schuur for an almost-full chorus of scat soloing.

Another ensemble interlude, this time more traditionally Basie-esque in structure, occurs at measure 97 before Schuur engages in a back-and-forth battle with Foster's tenor sax for another almost-full chorus, with the full band coming in once again for an interlude on the last A section at measure 137. Schuur brings the melody back at measure 145, with the horn backgrounds taking on a far more aggressive approach to match the increased intensity of her vocals. The ending features a sort-of tag of the last few measures of the melody, with the ensemble riffing hard all the way up until the final few measures, where a brief piano plink sets up one last (surprisingly dissonant) blast.