Richard Carpenter, credited composer · Recorded by the Miles Davis All Stars at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, Hackensack, 1954
Walkin'
Walkin' is a in F credited to Richard Carpenter; Miles Davis recorded it for Prestige in 1954. The same twelve repeat for the whole performance, so each player gets room to build a solo. You can hear it from Miles Davis, Tal Farlow, Hampton Hawes, J.J. Johnson and Art Pepper.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the 1954 Miles Davis sextet, then follows the tune through guitar, piano trio, alto saxophone and trombone versions. It ends with a large-group arrangement, Miles Davis's 1964 quintet and a 1980 meeting of two alto saxophonists.
Miles Davis led this sextet at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio on April 29, 1954. Prestige issued it that year on a 10-inch LP and again in 1957 as the title track of Walkin', and Davis kept the tune in his live sets for years.
F major · 4/4 · swing · 128 bpm (medium)
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Three horns share the : Miles Davis on trumpet, J.J. Johnson on trombone and Lucky Thompson on tenor saxophone. Horace Silver on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums play underneath for more than 13 minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart in F, one per bar and the first chord where a bar has two: , , F7, , B♭7, , F7, , , , F7, Gm7. Go round it three times without stopping.
Guitarist Tal Farlow recorded it with a sextet in Los Angeles on May 3, 1955, a year after Miles Davis. Norgran issued it that year on A Recital by Tal Farlow.
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Tal Farlow's guitar leads, joined by trombone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone. The is bass and drums, and the track runs 5:29, less than half as long as the 1954 original.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 over and over: , , F7, then and F7 in one bar. Smaller version: play one per bar, F7, B♭7, F7, F7.
Pianist Hampton Hawes played it live with bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Shelly Manne at the Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach on June 20, 1955. Contemporary issued the concert in 1956.
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Only three players take part: Hampton Hawes on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Shelly Manne on drums. They fill seven minutes on their own.
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Play 5 to 8: , , , . Smaller version: play one per bar, B♭7, B°7, F7, Am7.
Bud Shank recorded it with his quartet at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on January 25, 1956, for the Pacific Jazz label. Streaming services list it at 9:42.
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Bud Shank leads a quartet with Claude Williamson on piano, Don Prell on bass and Chuck Flores on drums. At 9:42 the same twelve come round again and again.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four , bars 9 to 12: , , , Gm7 C7. The last leads back to the top, so play bar 1 again after bar 12.
J.J. Johnson played trombone on the 1954 Miles Davis recording. In February 1958 he cut the tune in a New York studio with cornetist Nat Adderley, and Columbia added applause and announcements so the album sounded like a concert.
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J.J. Johnson's trombone and Nat Adderley's cornet share the , with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Wilbur Little on bass and Albert Heath on drums. Johnson is the trombonist from the 1954 Miles Davis recording.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 12 with roots only, one note per bar: F, B♭, F, C, B♭, B, F, A, G, C, F, G. Then add the full on top.
Marty Paich arranged and conducted this version for eleven players plus Art Pepper. They recorded it for Contemporary in Los Angeles on May 12, 1959.
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Instead of a small group, many horns back Art Pepper: two trumpets, a trombone, a French horn and several saxophones. Russ Freeman plays piano, Joe Mondragon bass and Mel Lewis drums.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart with each as one short hit on the first beat of the , then rest for the other three beats, the way a horn section might. Smaller version: do this for bars 1 to 4 only.
Ten years after the Hackensack session, Miles Davis was still playing Walkin' on stage. This version comes from the February 12, 1964 concert at Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall, and Columbia released it in 1966.
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Miles Davis again leads, now with one horn beside him, George Coleman on tenor saxophone, and a different : Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Compare Davis's trumpet here with the 1954 record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the full chart with a metronome, starting slowly and raising the tempo a little each time round, until you reach the fastest speed where you can still change on time.
Sonny Stitt and His West Coast Friends: Groovin' High
Alto saxophonists Art Pepper and Sonny Stitt recorded it together in Hollywood in July 1980, with pianist Lou Levy. Atlas released the session in Japan that year on Groovin' High, and Omnivore Recordings issued it again in 2017.
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Two alto saxophonists, Art Pepper and Sonny Stitt, share the over Lou Levy's piano, Chuck De Monico's bass and Carl Burnett's drums. Try to tell the two saxophones apart.
Try it on your instrument
Play the notes of each 's first one at a time from low to high, one chord per bar: , , F7, , B♭7, , F7, , , , F7, Gm7. This is a first step toward playing a line over the chart.
Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt record the tune as Gravy in 1950, and Miles Davis's sextet records it as Walkin' in 1954. Guitar, piano trio, alto saxophone and trombone versions follow by 1958.
1960s
Miles Davis's quintet plays it at Antibes in 1963 and at Lincoln Center in February 1964. Columbia releases the Lincoln Center set in 1966 on 'Four' & More.
1980s
Alto saxophonists Art Pepper and Sonny Stitt record it together in Hollywood in July 1980. In 1986 Bobby McFerrin sings it on his live album Spontaneous Inventions.
2010s
Jamie Cullum sings it on his 2014 album Interlude, in a version that runs 2:43.
More great versions
5 more, from 1957 to 2014. Tap a cover to play it here.
Red Garland had played Walkin' as pianist in Miles Davis's quintet. He recorded it with guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor on May 24, 1957, and Prestige held it until 1969.
Miles Davis played this version at the Antibes jazz festival on July 27, 1963, and Columbia released it in 1964 on Miles Davis in Europe. It runs more than 16 minutes, longer than the 1954 studio take.
Wayne Shorter had replaced George Coleman on tenor saxophone by the time Miles Davis played the Berliner Jazztage on September 25, 1964. The rest of the band was the same as at Lincoln Center that February.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
F majorusual key
12 barsA form
F majorkey centers
A12 bars
F
The tune is one that repeats. In iReal Pro's chart, bars 1 to 4 play , , F7 and F7, bars 5 to 8 play B♭7, , F7 and , and bars 9 to 12 play , , F7 D7 and Gm7 C7, which leads back to the top. The whole chorus stays in F. Other lead sheets may spell some differently.