Sheryl Bailey Contemporary Jazz Concert: Faculty Artist Series

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Sheryl Bailey Contemporary Jazz Concert: Faculty Artist Series
Colin Sapp

As part of Guitar Week events, faculty guitarist Sheryl Bailey presented a trio performance accompanied by Ashly Turner on bass and Sonny Jain on drums. In this article, we will examine one of her compositions that displays her unique sense of harmony and song forms. "Until the End of Never" is a ballad that makes use of common tone chord progressions. The first nine measures all share an open high E-string in the chord voicings. In measure eleven Sheryl introduces a unique sounding chord that has two notational possibilities. The upper structure is a straight-ahead Cmaj7 (#11). She places that over Ab where it becomes a very thick Ab altered sound. This voicing sets up the common tone B in the melody that will be found in several other harmonic structures. On measures seventeen and eighteen Sheryl moves the bottom three notes down a half step, keeping the top two the same, which creates great colors and textures. Sheryl has a new CD with an anticipated release date of May 2001. The project is titled Reunion of Souls.