Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

History:

• Written by Joe Zawinul for Cannonball Adderley's album "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at The Club"
• 1966
• reached #11 on the Billboard Charts
• Been performed by many bands from beginners to professionals

Factoids:

• The above band is the Buddy Rich (drummer) Memorial Big Band
• Dave Weckl is playing drums (he rocks the mullet really well, don't you think? ha)
• Theme is first played twice in the introduction
• Notes from the major pentatonic scale
• The chord progression has a 20 bar structure (unusual)
• The chords are mostly dominant 7th chords building on the first, fourth and fifth scale degrees giving it a "12 bar blues" effect
• This arrangement is driven by the high intesity of the drummer (there's also a key change towards the end)