Footprints (composition)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Footprints" is a jazz standard composed by saxophonist Wayne Shorter and first recorded for his album Adam's Apple in 1966.[1] The first commercial release of the song was a different recording on the Miles Davis album Miles Smiles recorded later in 1966, but released earlier.[2] It has become a jazz standard.[3][4]
Although often written in 3
4 or 6
8, it is not a jazz waltz because the feel alternates between simple meter and compound meter. On Miles Smiles, the band playfully explores the correlation between African-based 12
8 (or 6
8) and 4
4. Drummer Tony Williams freely moves from swing, to the three-over-two cross rhythm—and to its 4
4 correlative.[5]
The ground of four main beats is maintained throughout the piece. The bass switches to 4
4 at 2:20. Ron Carter’s 4
4 figure is known as tresillo in Afro-Cuban music and is the duple-pulse correlative of the 12
8 figure.[6] This may have been the first overt expression of systemic, African-based cross-rhythm used by a straight ahead jazz group. During Davis’s first trumpet solo, Williams shifts to a 4
4 jazz ride pattern while Carter continues the 12
8 bass line.
The following example shows the 12
8 and 4
4 forms of the bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where one ordinarily taps their foot to "keep time."
