To Wisdom the Prize, Larry Willis

Larry Willis, a wonderful player, greatly underrated, composed To Wisdom The Prize. Willis, who passed away in 2019, was a complex musician, combining Hancock's deft modernism and Bill Evans' lyricism. Definitely worth checking out.

I got turned on to his playing through this tune, only to discover a very rich musical journey from modal jazz to hardbop and his own very lyrical trio playing.

On the album, the traveler, Joey Calderazzo plays a mesmerizing version of the tune, accompanied by the great John Patitucci. Being a fan of Calderazzo's playing, this tune always stuck to me and I have listened to it so many times, it should be illegal.

Longtime, the album was not on iTunes (in Europe) or Spotify...? and that was sad, because the Blue Note Albums Calderazzo recorded are simply stunning. Recently, these albums have been added. And rightfully so. In The Door is probably the best of these albums, but The Traveler has all kinds of wonderful.

It's mostly a modal tune, with a nice melody to it. Doesn't need much explaining.

I used a latin style you can find in the Latin pack. By the way, it's not the style that I made and haven't published yet, mimicking the Patitucci style playing, but this style will do just nicely, thank you.

As always, you can find the tune in BIAB-format here. When you open the tune in BIAB, it will tell you it can not find the style, if you don't have the Latin Pack 1. But you can replace it with another style.