SOUL EYES

SOUL EYES was composed by Mal Waldron in 1957, the piece was originally written with John Coltrane in mind. It’s a 32-bar ballad in ABAC form, set in 4/4 time, and it first appeared on the album Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors. But it was Coltrane’s 1962 recording on his album Coltrane that truly brought the tune into the spotlight. What makes Soul Eyes so enduring is its emotional depth—it’s introspective, tender, and almost meditative. Waldron once said he wrote it to match Coltrane’s sound, and you can hear that synergy in the way the melody seems to breathe through the saxophone. Instrumental ballads of American love songs tend to draw us in emotionally through several common features, and because the work on our emotions we rarely consider how this is done. Here I tried to capture the right mood for Soul Eyes. First, a slow tempo in a lush arrangement, with a gentle, unhurried pace to help create a warm, almost immersive atmosphere. Even though I improvise on the melody, I tried not to stay too far from the melody, because its the tunes that are memorable and evoke a sense of longing. I try to evoke a sentimental mood a yearning, or heartbreak through chord selection, tension and release, mirroring the highs and lows of romantic emotion, and often to create a sense of uplift or catharsis.