# Help me identify this jazz tune
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 25, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211 "2019-02-25T22:48:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/1 "2019-02-25T22:48:54Z")
It was a radio hit some three decades back. I remember hearing it a lot, but never found out who did it. The lead instrument on the theme was an alto sax.
When I reconstructed it from memory on guitar, I played it in E, because guitar. More likely, it was really in either F or E-flat, because sax. I’ll give it in F, best I can:
A - C - F;
F - A - D;
C… Bb A, G, F (repeat)
After that comes a variant where the third note F and the sixth note D are played at the octave.
One distinctive thing about this tune is the type of syncopation. Every note (except that B-flat) is played an eighth-note off the beat. It comes in an eighth-note before the downbeat. How many tunes ever do that? IIRC it had a touch of swing underlying the heavy syncopation, making it more rhythmically sophisticated than it seems at first. It used a fairly bright tempo too.
I listened to every pop jazz hit I could think of from the 1970s and '80s but never found it.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/2 "2019-02-25T22:52:26Z")
So it’s not Gerry Rafferty or Steely Dan or Donald Fagan?
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### Author:  [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/3 "2019-02-25T23:03:16Z")
Birdland?
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/4 "2019-02-25T23:12:53Z")
> [@Chingon](#):
>
> Birdland?
That matches. And whether or not that’s the right answer, I’m impressed.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/5 "2019-02-25T23:24:01Z")
> [@Chingon](#):
>
> Birdland?
YES!!! 🙂 Excellent Straight Dope coup, **Chingon**! Thank you!
[Weather Report!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae0nwSv6cTU) Ah, this scratches a mental itch of years’ duration.
ETA: Huh, it is in E after all. So Wayne Shorter was blowing with seven sharps. Crazy, man.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/6 "2019-02-25T23:33:46Z")
Whoops, I got that wrong. It’s in G. So only 4 sharps for Wayne.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/7 "2019-02-25T23:50:22Z")
Got that wrong [also](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdland_(song)). Wayne blew tenor and soprano on that side. So he’s down to 3 sharps. Anyway! You rock, **Chingon**!
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### Author:  [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/8 "2019-02-26T01:32:24Z")
I get to use my strangely specific super power so rarely, so I am glad to help!
No buses ever get hijacked by random jazz tunes.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-jazz-tune/830211/9 "2019-02-26T05:35:06Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> YES!!! 🙂 Excellent Straight Dope coup, **Chingon**! Thank you!
> [Weather Report!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae0nwSv6cTU) Ah, this scratches a mental itch of years’ duration.
>
> ETA: Huh, it is in E after all. So Wayne Shorter was blowing with seven sharps. Crazy, man.
I prefer the Manhatten Transfer version with vocals.