In an interview with Sheila Jordan in a book entitled Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians, Jordan noted: "Some people used to think [the song] was about a child who dies at an early age. Actually, it was originally named after a piano player who was advertised in the back of a Down Beat magazine. Steve saw the name and liked it. He never knew the guy, but he was intrigued with his name.”[3]
Composition
The piece is a waltz with three distinct tonal centers. The piece begins with 16 bars in the key of E minor, and it modulates to D minor for the second 16 bars. Following this, there is an 8-bar bridge in Abmaj7#11. The song ends with 16 bars in the key of C minor.