The song was first recorded by Bobby Timmons in his debut album This Here is Bobby Timmons (January 1960) and shortly after by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers on the album The Big Beat (March 1960) with Timmons as the band’s pianist.
The song was first recorded by Bobby Timmons in his debut album This Here is Bobby Timmons (January 1960) and shortly after by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers on the album The Big Beat (March 1960) with Timmons as the band’s pianist.
Oscar Brown Jr. penned the lyrics later for the song’s release on his 1961 début album Sin & Soul…and Then Some, as he did with two other recent jazz instrumentals, Mongo Santamaría’s “Afro Blue,” and Nat Adderley’s “Work Song”. Brown’s lyrics describe a child’s curiosity and excitement on a visit to the zoo with his father, and the parent’s reflections on the child’s growing up.
Musical structure
It features a joint trumpet and tenor saxophone solo from measures 9 through 23. Then the saxophone takes its own solo from measures 34 through 59, sporting a D minor- B minor7 (b5)- E minor7 (b5) chord progression. At measure 59 the whole band joins in for a loud and proud “shout chorus.” It takes the coda back to 18, and once measure 30 is finished, it is open to the whole band to solo individually.
Other versions
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