Sonny Clark - 1957
‘Dial ‘S’ for Sonny’ is the title track on Sonny Clark’s debut album. The piece is an early example of some techniques that would become popular in the early 1960s – the Dorian Mode and Pedal Points.
The introduction to ‘Dial ‘S’ for Sonny’ is obviously a drone on ‘f’, but the whole A section keeps this feel by not shifting the chord between the F6 and Bb9 (I and IV).
The A section is in F Dorian mode (Example 1). The B section moves briefly to Ab Major then moves back to F Dorian with some indeterminate diminished chords.
Pay close attention to ‘d’ natural. This 6th degree of the scale defines the Dorian mode. Notice how he moves to ‘d’ flat in bar 18, emphasizing the shift to Ab Major.
