“SATELLITE”, from the Coltrane record, COLTRANE SOUND, is conceptually similar to songs like “COUNTDOWN” and “26-2″. it demonstrates his intense scrutiny and re-imagining of jazz harmony. in Coltrane, we are blessed to have a musician who was a deep thinker and theoretician, as well as a highly skilled practitioner, a rare combination in any discipline. we’re also very fortunate that Coltrane’s development was so well documented… “SATELLITE” is more appealing to me than, say, “GIANT STEPS” because at the end of each chorus there’s an eight measure pedal point that allows the chord progression to breathe a bit and a soloist to regroup for the next pass. throughout his six chorus solo, instead of letting up, Coltrane uses those eight bars to build the momentum of his solo through the use of dissonance. as a result, the top of each successive chorus sounds like a dam breaking, unable to hold the water behind it. Trane plays a beautiful solo accompanied by Elvin Jones on drums and Steve Davis on bass…
Lately i’ve been rereading a great book, the second part of Chester Himes’ two volume autobiography entitled “My Life Of Absurdity”. Himes, an awesome writer and contemporary of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, John A. Williams, etc., spent a large part of his adult life as an expatriate artist searching for and eventually finding a measure of success after leaving the U.S., where he was largely neglected. as the title suggests, Himes’ tale is one filled with enough adventure, humor, heartbreak and stories so bizarre that they test the limits of credulity. he speaks with gritty, bitter honesty about the lifestyle of expatriate black artists in postwar Europe. the first volume, “The Quality Of Hurt”, which deals with his life before leaving the states, is just as incredible. perhaps Himes and Mal Waldron have nothing more in common than spending the larger part of their artistic life living abroad. unlike Himes, Waldron didn’t want for work while in New York. he was busy as a leader and sideman before his departure. also, unlike Himes, he seemed to adapt to his new environment in Europe without too much difficulty… below are two of Waldron’s compositions from different points in his career. the first, “Fire Waltz”, is from the record, ERIC DOLPHY LIVE AT THE FIVE SPOT, VOL. 1, recorded in New York in 1961, which features forward thinkers Dolphy, Booker Little, Ed Blackwell, Richard Davis and Waldron. listening to Waldron blow, after to the iconoclastic wail of Dolphy and the fertile linear conception of Little, one is struck by how stark and stubborn Waldron’s solo sounds. he takes very specific melodic and rhythmic ideas and ceaselessly reexamines them. his approach to improvising is very personal and unique. “Fire Waltz” is a sixteen bar song built over a common turnaround. it opens with a funky four bar intro from Waldron and Blackwell, then the melody by Dolphy with comments by Little and the rhythm section. “Autumn Dreams”, recorded thirty years later in Germany, is from the album by the same name, and features the beautiful alto of Charlie Mariano along with paulo Cardoso on bass and John Betsch on drums. it’s a thirty two bar AABA ballad. the melody and harmony are pretty conventional but contain some subtle tweaks that set it apart…
Here are some more transcriptions from one of my favorite pianists, Mulgrew Miller. as i mentioned in an earlier post, Miller’s compositions share something in common with the great Cedar Walton. they’re made up of memorable, even singable melodies, and set on top of unconventional, sophisticated progressions. they’re accessible and elusive at the same time. the two songs below are good examples of what i mean. “For Those Who Do” is from the record HAND IN HAND. it features five members of the album’s septet: Kenny Garrett on soprano sax, Steve Nelson on vibes, Christian McBride on the bass and Lewis Nash on drums. the form is interesting: after a four measure drum intro, the melody is stated by the saxophone. the first section is twenty bars long. after a second twenty-two bar melody is played, the section’s progression repeated for solos. after blowing by Garrett and Nelson, the initial melody is restated. the second melody is then looped while Miller blows over it. the lines that he plays over the challenging progression are just incredible. Miller dances on the outer edges of the harmonies but he is always able to anchor what he does with a strong rhythmic sense and an ever present funkiness. “Another Type Thang” comes from the date WITH OUR OWN EYES, a trio record featuring Miller, Richie Goods on bass and Tony Reedus on drums. the melody begins after an eight bar introduction. the A section consists of a four bar idea that is repeated in the following four bars, modulated down a major third. the B section starts with a two bar motif that is repeated in descending whole steps. half of the A section is repeated, then a coda like section, eight bars long is played. the blowing is over the twenty-eight measure ABA form. Miller plays a really grooving solo punctuated by amazing 16th note runs…
Well, the more i listen to Scofield’s record, TIME ON MY HANDS, the sicker it sounds to me. the blend of his guitar with Joe Lovano’s saxophone is really sweet. the contrasting timbres combine in so many intriguing ways. i like that Scofield leaves so much to the imagination in his comping. Charlie Haden’s bass lines are a subtle but insistent catalyst, plotting the harmonic direction of the other voices. he never fails to make the right choices, he plays harmonically and melodically at the same time. he’s truly one of a kind… Jack DeJohnnette’s drums are like a surging river full of cross currents, inviting the soloists to dive in and try to stay afloat. i can’t say that i’m a fan of how his drums were recorded, but i can get past that. “So Sue Me”- such a great piece of music. there’s so much going on. the melody is a collage of melodic and rhythmic motifs set against each other in such a way as to keep the ear constantly unsettled. the feel of the melody is situated somewhere between two rhythmic poles, each exerting its influence to blur the edges of the lines. melodic ideas are piled on top of each other like a house of cards, and threaten to implode until the final release into the blowing section. definite echoes of Ornette Coleman’s music, bluesy, balls-to-the-wall, a compacted orchestral movement, constantly evolving. what makes this music so great is that there’s an element of mayhem, chaos is always lurking in the back of the room, ready to pull the rug out from under everything, but the musicians, who sound to me as if they are really pushing themselves to draw outside the lines, always know where the lines are, and push forward and pull back as the music demands. and they really seem to be enjoying themselves. this, to me is the beautiful thing about improvised music. what a great record..!
The late, great Grover Washington Jr. has always been one of my saxophone heroes. his playing, ever soulful and earthy, never fails to move me. i was so pleased to come across this cut from his early career as a sideman with Leon Spencer, before he shot to stardom with a string of hit records on the CTI/ Kudu label. “Message From The Meters” is a 12 bar funk blues from a record called SNEAK PREVIEW that features a raw, gritty rhythm section comprised of organ, electric bass and guitar, congas and tight, funky drums. Washington is right at home in the fat pocket and plays with a wide variety of staccato attacks, smears, slurs, etc. no notes are wasted. he uses space really well, plays phrases and responds to them, and generates so much of energy by playing repeated notes. most of his solo is based on an E minor blues scale but it never gets boring because he constantly changes his rhythmic approach. what really kills me is his sound- dark and thick but still agile and flexible…
Honestly, i’ve never been a big fan of guitars drenched in electronic effects or, as i call them, affected guitars, in largely acoustic settings. but that’s never stopped me from enjoying a lot of John Scofield’s work. there’s the great record, “So Near, So Far”, led by Joe Henderson, which was featured in an earlier post. there’s also his date, TIME ON MY HANDS with Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette and Charlie Haden. a song from that date i particularly like is Scofield’s “Since You Asked”. i can’t help but think that maybe he had Mingus in mind when he wrote it. the writing definitely evokes echoes of a song like “Goodbye Porkpie Hat”. like “Goodbye”, “Since” is an understated, bluesy ballad with a 12/8 feel. it has an AABA form, starting out with Scofield alone on the first section. the band then joins him for the rest of the tune. the melody moves beautifully, especially during the bridge as the harmony wanders toward Amaj but never quite makes it there. then there’s Lovano, who, with his dark, woody tenor that serves a great contrast to Scofield’s ethereal soundbending, just seems never to sound bad. he delivers a quiet, lyrical chorus full of beautiful altissimo work… so, here’s a sketch of “Since You Asked” along with a transcription of Lovano’s blowing. once again, the changes? i think they’re pretty close but i’ll leave you make the call…
Following up on recent posts about diatonic transpositon of melodies, i decided to take things a little further and apply this process to a denser melody. as of late, i’ve been putting a lot of time into shedding music from Coltrane’s middle period. on songs like “Giant Steps”, “Countdown” and “26-2″, Coltrane took his harmonic, and corresponding melodic, exploration to new heights of complexity. in an earlier post where i compared solos by Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on “Grand Central”, i mentioned that while Adderley functioned on the molecular level, so to speak, Coltrane operated on the atomic level, applying his groundbreaking harmonic ideas to conventional bebop progressions as well as his original music. “26-2″ is loosely based on Charlie Parker’s “Comfirmation” changes. the 32 bar melody is quite a challenge to play and blowing over the changes is incredibly difficult because the constantly evolving chord progression only slightly lets up (but not much!) during the bridge. one of the rules i outlined for diatonic transposition is that 11ths should be raised on all Major and Dominant 7th chords. well, rules are made to be broken. while i did raise the 11ths on all Major chords, i decided not to do so with the Dominant chords this time. you can play the transcription as written and then try it with the 11ths raised. listen to what your ear tells you. as you play through the different transpositions you’ll find any number of cool melodic ideas you might want to explore in your own blowing…
“Nardis” by Bill Evans is one of my favorite compositions. i love the way the chords move, as well as the feeling the melody evokes. i thought it would be interesting to do the same thing i did on a recent post where i took the melody of “Body And Soul” and transposed it diatonically. “Nardis” presents some challenges because there are several notes in the melody that don’t belong to the harmony. for example, in the second measure, there are D#’s that don’t belong to the FMaj chord. in measure seven, there’s an F that doesn’t belong to the EMaj chord. in the third and fourth measures of the original melody, the B is held through the B7 and CMaj chords. the note will sometimes change from chord to chord as the melody is transposed diatonically. i put those notes in parentheses. like i said before, playing through these transpositions reveals other aspects of the original melody…
With its powerful three horn front line and a several great composer/ improvisors, the configuration of the Jazz Messengers featured on the record MOSAIC was one of the finest ensembles that Art Blakey assembled. the addition of a third horn allowed for more complex voicings and an even richer sound that the band’s composers were able to exploit to fine effect. Cedar Walton’s composition, “MOSAIC” is a great example of the power and complexity that the ensemble could achieve. the song starts with a brilliant fanfare that leads into a powerful drum break by Blakey. Walton and Jymie Merritt (bass) join the groove for sixteen bars before the horns come in with the main melody. i love melodies like this: the melody comes directly out of the rhythm. during the bridge, the voices take on different tasks. the lower two horns play harmonic pads while the lead horn is free to comment from above. the piano plays something that i’ve heard called a rhythmic palindrome. for example, in 4/4 time a measure can be evenly divided by certain units (sixteenth notes, eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, etc.). certain units, however (dotted half notes, dotted quarter notes, etc.) won’t divide into the measure evenly. consequently, they resolve themselves over the course of several measures. so, for example, if measures in 4/4 time are evenly divided into dotted half notes, it takes three measures before a note falls in the same place as it did when the cycle began. in the diagram below, each dot, regardless of color, represents a quarter note. the top line of dots indicates the beats per measure. in this case, the measures are divided into 4 quarter notes (4/4). the bottom line indicates the unit of division which is a dotted half note (3 quarter notes). each group of like colored dots represents a unit.
Walton plays dotted quarter note units that resolve every three bars. Merritt plays a repeating three note sequence. the beginning of the melody falls on the downbeat every three measures. Blakey, meanwhile, is incorporates ALL of these elements into his drum groove. it’s a stark contrast to the preceding section where all the elements are more overtly unified. “MOSAIC” is a great piece of music by one of jazz’s most influential composers. check out the sketch and mp3 below…
I received a request from a friend here in tokyo for a transcription of Hancock’s song “Oliloqui Valley”, which comes from the his record, EMPYREAN ISLES. it features many of the same personnel from his more well known date, MAIDEN VOYAGE (Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter). this is a great recording that features what seem to be general sketches that the musicians are able to expand upon. it’s an excellent example of the post bop attitude- musicians who were willing and able to reference traditional styles as well as work at the boundaries of free playing with confidence and authority. what i love most about this record is how relaxed and assured it sounds… “Oliloqui Valley” is built off of a vamping bassline under a piano figure and a simple four note melody by Hubbard. the song then moves into a short improvised passage. the whole passage is repeated before it moves into the blowing section. the chords are related by color more than anything else. Hancock plays a great solo, the right hand of which is transcribed below…
Well, PRACTICE PORTAL went off the grid for a while and when it came back online, the last two posts, featuring Ornette Coleman and the World Saxophone Quartet, were nowhere to be found. since i’ve forgotten just about everything i wrote in those posts, i’ll just redo the links here for you. three words of advice for you bloggers: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP! the mp3’s and pdf’s will be back online shortly all mp3’s and pdf’s are working properly… oh yeah, the missing Andrew Hill material is coming soon (thanks Matt, i totally forgot).
Powell, along with Thelonius Monk was the most influential pianist to came out of the Bebop period of the 40’s and 50’s. he was the catalyst of a significant change in the way pianists approached the instrument. though well versed in the styles of his predecessors, his unique take on improvisation was characterized by long, chromatic, mostly linear right hand lines, balanced by a sparse, syncopated left hand accompaniment full of harmonic variation. his approach was similar to that of a horn player. i took a couple of solos off of a compilation CD called “YOUNG BUD” which features music he recorded as leader and sideman between 1944 and 1947. “Jay Bird”, a J.J. Johnson line based on rhythm changes, is performed by the Cootie Williams Orchestra. Powell takes a one chorus solo on each of the takes. “Nice Work If You Can Get It” by the Gershwin Brothers, is peformed by the Bud Powell Trio, featuring Curley Russell and Max Roach. nice… this is just a brief preview of the genius of Bud Powell. i’ll dig a little deeper in coming posts…
It’s amazing to think that even in a community as small as that of jazz, there are so many musicians to discover and listen to. pianist Hod O’Brien is a musician i came across by accident. a friend of my wife, whose father was an avid record collector that had recently passed away, allowed me access to his many CDs. his first love seemed to be trio recordings so i was lucky enough to come away with great recordings by Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Cedar Walton, Ray Bryant, Gene Harris, Mulgrew Miller, John Hicks, Junior Mance, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Drew, Hal Galper, Mal Waldron, Richie Beirach, etc. i happened upon O’Brien’s disc RIDIN’ HIGH and chose it mainly because of sidemen Kenny Washington and Ray Drummond. upon listening to it, i was very happy that i chose it. Obrien may safely be called a disciple of the Bud Powell style of piano improvisation. his solos, steeped in the language of Bebop, are characterized by a highly developed linear style. i am attracted to his playing because, for a while now, i’ve been trying to address that way of improvisation in my playing, trying to solidify my grounding in functional harmony, running lines through a succession of changes… his solos are a great model for transcription and analysis. “Up In Quincy’s Room” by Gigi Gryce is a great medium uptempo song with a set of nice changes. O’Brien plays a five chorus solo that is filled with great examples of the traditional Bebop style. the rhythm section, especially Washington, accompany him nicely…
Bobby Hutcherson’s NOW! is a record i’d never heard until a few months ago. i was listening to a show on the radio and “Slow Change” came on as bumper music. i was attracted to the singing (especially the trio of background vocalists) and the beautiful ostinato in 3/4 time. what really hit me was the transition the song makes from a waltz to a funky modal vamp. the 8th note flattens out and and evens up, the feel turns from ethereal to earthy.
NOW! comes from a period in jazz that is often overlooked or dismissed, when the dramatic impact of avant-guard styles turned some listeners away from jazz, other styles of music like rock and funk became more popular with younger audiences, and the influx of so many other styles of music into jazz created something of an identity crisis for many performers. while some musicians were unable or unwilling to accept that any music necessarily has to change, for better or worse, others like Bobby Hutcherson, who has consistently embraced new ways of making music throughout his career, found ways to make his music fresh, creative and adventurous, and could rise above arbitrary labels like “fusion” or “jazz funk”. for this date, he gathered some of his regular partners in crime like Harold Land on tenor sax, Joe Chambers on drums, Stanley Cowell (and Kenny Barron) on keys and Herbie Lewis on bass, and augmented them with congas (Candido), guitar (Wally Richardson) and vocals (Gene McDaniels, Eileen Gilbert, Christine Spencer and Maeretha Stewart). the music is inspired by all that was happening at the time: the decline of the civil rights movement, psychedelia, drugs, Black pride, Vietnam, the onset of urban decay and general disillusionment of the 70’s. despite all that heaviness, the message i hear form this group is one of empowerment and uplift. a strong Afrocentric attitude permeates the recording. many other artists come to mind as i listen to this music: Pharoah Sanders, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, Donald Byrd, Roberta Flack, Miles Davis, Roy Ayers, Earth Wind And Fire, Rotary Connection, Weldon Irvine, Marvin Gaye, John Klemmer, Gary Bartz, Leon Thomas, Curtis Mayfield, Horace Tapscott, Aurthur Blythe, Erykah Badu… i’m reminded of the time i spent in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park, often seeing cats like Harold Land, Horace Tapscott, Azar Lawrence, Oscar Brashear, Ndugu Chanceler and so many others… the song is in two sections. the first is an ostinato figure with a simple, repeated riff as the melody. the combination of the background voices and the vibraphone makes for a really nice pad for the lead voice. the song is in two parts. the first section is played and repeated. on the third pass, the melody builds intensity by moving through a series of chords voiced in fourths. the melody and harmony then settle into a two chord vamp. the entire form is repeated and then the vamp opens up for solos by Land and Hutcherson. i also included an mp3 of another version of the song from a record called BLUE NOTE MEETS THE L.A. PHILHARMONIC, recorded almost a decade later…
“Montara” is title track from the record MONTARA. on this outing Hutcherson is accompanied by a host of great jazz musicians based on the west coast as well as stars from the world of Latin jazz. “Montara” is a pretty simple, gentle song. the melody is a three note motif that unfolds over a four bar vamp. it’s is played by Hutcherson, on vibes and marimba, Oscar Brashear on muted trumpet and Ernie Watts on flute. nice, mellow percussion along with Fender Rhodes and electric bass. where’s the beach? where’s my Pina Colada? i’m not sure why i like this song so much; it just appeals to me. i first heard it on a record by a hip hop producer named Madlib. Blue Note records allowed him access to their catalogue so he could dig up some samples for a recording project called SHADES OF BLUE. that whole endeavor was a little spotty but his version of “Montara” was great. the melody is the kind that sticks in your brain after you’ve heard it. the record itself is pretty nice. some of the music is modalish and other parts are Latin flavored jazz, with the emphasis on Latin. standouts on the disc are Hutcherson’s “Yuyo” and a nice cover of “Oye Coma Va”.
Doing transcriptions for PRACTICE PORTAL has been a blast. when i was younger, i used to transcribe a lot; for ear training, to cop ideas, to gather material for creating exercises, etc. as i matured and started working more, i left transcribing behind for several years. my rationalization was that i needed to spend more time finding my own voice. i continued listening but i didn’t bother to take down solos. although it is good to try to soak things in by osmosis, i am again realizing how useful it is to have transcribed solos on hand, whether it’s for use as practice fodder or as a reference to compare and contrast different styles, players, compositions, etc. though i still feel strongly that musicians- any musician, but especially improvising musicians- are better served by learning music aurally, through memorization and repetition, having written material still is of great use. setting two or more solos side by side for analysis is much easier when done aurally and visually… i’ve been kicking around the idea of doing more posts that compare soloists as they improvise over the same song. my recent post of “Grand Central” featuring Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane is a good example of what i mean. i’d like to take that concept and apply it to soloists on different recordings and perhaps even from different stylistic eras. as soon as i find some good material, i’ll get to work… which brings me to…
“Cain & Able” is a song from Branford Marsalis’ record, THE BEAUTYFUL ONES ARE NOT YET BORN. a great album featuring Marsalis in a trio setting with Robert Hurst, Jeff Watts and the occassional guest artist. the tunes are generally mid to uptempo in the post bop vein with some hard swinging workouts and a couple of ballads by Marsalis and cohorts. many of the melodies are just brief sketches. Wynton Marsalis shares the front line with Branford for “Cain & Able”. although the title suggests fraternal intrigue, backstabbing and betrayal of biblical proportions, i’m guessing that it’s just a tongue in cheek response to the hype that surrounded the two brothers after Branford parted company and set off on a different path than Wynton. funny, for all the divergences, they both landed on their feet at the top of the jazz world…
Branford and Wynton harmonize with each other during the melody, which starts out as a conventional blues progression before moving through a couple of deceptive time changes and an unusual turnaround. the first section, which is twelve measures, is then repeated but there is another time change at the eleventh measure that abruptly introduces a twelve measure coda. the last section has a different energy and stylistic feel. there’re lots of really nice, super close voicings between the horns, and rhythmic bobbing and weaving throughout the song. after the melody, the band settles into a nice blues and the brothers Marsalis play with, against, over, under, off and around each other in a bit of improvisational telepathy that is a pleasure to listen to. the most difficult part of transcribing this music was that the horn lines sometimes work so closely together that they sound like a single polyphonic instrument. at times the timbre of the two horns match each other perfectly. i had to listen to certain sections of the recording repeatedly to figure out which horn was playing what notes. they are both masters of their respective instruments but what is more fascinating to me is the obvious empathy and respect they have for each other. whenever i hear Wynton and Branford, i can’t help but to imagine the course that contemporary acoustic jazz would have taken had Wynton’s very influential band (circa “Black Codes From The Underground”) remained together and continued to develop. .. i haven’t featured many players who came to prominence in the 80’s and 90’s. perhaps it’s just a bias of mine (why mess with the branches when you can dig up the roots?) with that attitude there’s a danger of ending up like an ostrich with my head in the dirt… i’m coming around. anyway, i want to try and feature more younger performers, guys who are currently active and evolving.
I took down the melody “Cain & Able” along with eleven choruses of blowing. check it out…
I was on the Youtube today and came across a live version of “Cain And Abel” featuring Wynton and Branford. very swinging… this version is better in terms of pacing. there were moments on the CD where i thought the intensity took a dip but here, perhaps because of being in a live situation, the focus and energy never lets up. there are a couple times when they hit on some really beautiful counterpoint… you can’t front…
MONK ALONE: THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA SOLO STUDIO RECORDINGS (1962-1968) provides a listener with a chance to witness a master of the language of American music and one of the chief architects of Bebop as he shines his light on numerous compositional gems. what’s so great about these sides is that, because he is free of the obligations of working in an ensemble, he’s able to indulge his whims as he pleases. at times, he more or less strictly interprets the melodies, only adding spare embellishment. he sometimes improvises over the song’s progression. a rubato passage may be followed by stride piano stylings, or perhaps he’ll just pound out long, ringing chords. at essence, he always frames the music in his unique harmonic and rhythmic conception making the songs, which are mostly standards, his own. i liken Monk to an alchemist who uses raw sounds as elements to be combined for various effect, by turns jarring and soothing. i hear him attempting to physically transform the piano, on which notes are strictly pitched, into an instrument capable of bending and shaping sound like a saxophone, a violin or a singer. he mainly does so by utilizing dissonance as a device to bring ambiguity to his melodic line by smearing note attacks (playing a melodic note as part of a cluster rather than individually or “sliding” into a melodic note via an adjacent note). Monk often uses less consonant intervals (minor 2nds, Major 7ths, minor 9ths…) which blur the melodic and harmonic edges of his music. at times his sounds assume the quality of molten steel being pounded into shape by a hammer, or else fine strands of silk being woven into an intricate fabric. Monk also uses rhythm to great advantage by expanding and contracting the flow of his melodies and progressions with metric modulation, and employing syncopation to build rhythmic tension. what’s so great about his work is that he seems unafraid of allowing ugliness and abrasion to stand side by side with beauty and tenderness, as they do in the real world. there are few artist in any discipline who are able to pull that off with as much honesty as Monk did. Bartok? Coltrane? Picasso? Schoenberg? Armstrong? perhaps that’s the source of his music’s staying power… if you believe, as i do, that technique is not an end, but a means to a fuller expression, then Monk deserves the title of Piano Master. to my ear Monk’s interpretations on this two CD set are complete, self-contained statements that project a sort of brutal elegance which brings to mind the best of jazz. my only point of contention with this recording is that there isn’t enough of Monk’s own music represented. his numerous compositions are as much American standards as “Body And Soul”, “Memories Of You”, etc. still, this recording is a must have for anyone interested in a closer look at Monk’s take on music.
Monk sticks to the melody of “Introspection”, occasionally adding one of his characteristic descending runs. he doesn’t improvise. the form is AABA, each section is 8 measures long. he states the complete melody twice. it’s a great piece of music…
A few months back i had a conversation with a friend of mine and we started discussing Hip Hop music. we talked about our favorite records and MCs, and he mentioned that he was transcribing some verses to check out what different MCs were doing rhythmically. doing something like that had never occurred to me but after our conversation, the idea really grew on me. the guys i immediately thought about transcribing were Pharoahe Monch and Prince Poetry, formerly known as ORGANIZED KONFUSION. the NYC duo released three records during the 90s that were largely slept on perhaps due to their complex rhyme styles and underground aesthetic. they weren’t (at that time) traditional, 16 bar and out rappers. they were “abstract”, ever evolving and different from other crews (which was, at that time, a badge of honor). both MCs are pretty incredible but Monch stands out as the mad genius of the group. he has a great voice, an incredible flow, creative wordplay and, what appeals to me most, a variety of complex rhythmic patterns that he uses at will… the late 80s to mid 90s were a really creative time for Hip Hop. song tempos were faster, geared more toward a dancing audience, grooves were rhythmically more intricate, and MCs pushed the creative envelope and strove toward creating unique styles. MCs and crews like Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics, Native Tongues, Kool G Rap, Big L, Hobo Junction, Brand Nubian, Nas, KMD, Leaders Of The New School, Poor Righteous Teachers, Black Moon, Latyrx, X-Clan, CL Smooth, Public Enemy, Guru, Digable Planets, Camp Lo, Divine Styler, etc., influenced by MCs who laid down the prototype of the New School MC (Rakim, KRS One, Ultramagnetic MCs, Big Daddy Kane, MC Lyte, Percee P, etc.), raised the lyrical and musical bar. many of the artists mentioned above took a huge shot to the gut with the onset of so-called Gansta Rap. Hip Hop’s most creative elements were supressed in favor of a slower, more static beat, simpler rhyme styles, and a much narrower range of subject matter. Organized Konfusion was one group that fell by the wayside as the hypercommercialization of Hip Hop went into high gear. hopefully, as recession hit, cubic zirconia wearing rap dudes realize that rhyming about bank rolls is no longer in fashion, and that they have nothing to lose, as record labels aren’t spending money, even on commercial acts, they will start to embrace creativity and individuality in Hip Hop again. “The Extinction Agenda” is a track from OK’s sophmore effort, STRESS :THE EXTINCTION AGENDA, that was released in the summer of ‘94. in my opinion it was a pinnacle in lyrical creativity and precision. Prince Po and Monch utilize their voices like instruments, riding the beat closely with a 16th note staccato flow. they both are great at seasoning their lines with syncopated accents, and using phrases of irregular lengths. Monch in particular is able to articulate his intricate patterns clearly, even at quick tempos. at the time this album was released, beatsmiths were heavily mining the rich resources of jazz for material to use in their productions. “Extinction” uses a sample from Herbie Hancocks “Rain Dance” to beef up their beats. not exactly the boom bap style that was the norm at that time, this beat was looser and more syncopated, something that the average MC would most likely shy away from. Po and Monch have no fear; they take to the rhythm like fish to water. other standouts on this record are “Thirteen”, the utterly ridiculous “Bring It On”, and “Stray Bullet”, on which Monch delivers one of the all time classic verses in Hip Hop. breath control, imagery, precision rhyme schemes, intelligent swagger, thick production: OK had it all. check it out down below…
P.S. many thanks to Mike Z. for inspiring this post and a big shout out to Ethan Iverson at DO THE MATH for shining some light on up and coming blog geeks…
I’m currently reading a book called THE LIFE AND WORK OF WAYNE SHORTER by Michelle Mercer, which is on loan from a friend of mine here in Tokyo. anyone with a desire to know more about this giant of 20th century music is well advised to take a look at this book. many interesting anecdotes about his thought process, relationships with friends and fellow musicians, his home life, his spiritual convictions, his numerous misfortunes and triumphs, and his long journey stepping out from the shadows. NATIVE DANCER is, with the exception of SPEAK NO EVIL, my favorite Wayne Shorter record. it’s hard to believe that only ten years had passed between the recording of these two albums. they are vastly different. but Shorter’s sublime lyricism and compositional prowess are the threads that connect them. accompanying Shorter’s horn is the haunting voice of Milton Nascimiento. “DIANA”, written by Shorter, is a ballad played in a rubato style. it is essentially a duet between Shorter and Herbie Hancock with some electric bass accompaniment and overdubbed effects. there are three sections: the main melody, a restatement of the melody and a short coda. it comes off like a prelude to a larger piece of music or like the opening chapter of a fairytale, and conjures up vivid imagery when i listen to it. a barefoot woman in a soft dress walking through a field of high grass which is still moist from the night before, and the sun just broaching the horizon. perhaps she’s leaving someone or something behind. i wonder what she sees off in the distance. what a powerful melody. Wayne Shorter is definitely the man… i wrote out the shell of the song- the melody and bass voices. the chords are of course open to interpretation and the way i formatted the song is my own solution. listen to “DIANA” below and decide for yourself…
One of the many unsung heroes in jazz, the story of Nichols’ life is by now familiar to most so i won’t dwell on that. instead, i’ll focus on his compositions which are some of the more unique and challenging in jazz (and have great titles). his music references a number of styles: older piano players, bebop, European classical music, Caribbean music, Tin Pan Alley, etc. Nichols as a player utilizes the entire span of his instrument and anchors a quick, flowery right hand with a heavy, bomb dropping left that is reminiscent of Horace Silver at times. he swings hard! his emotional range is broad. he can move from dark, heavy themes to an unabashed, kitschy brilliance in the space of a single phrase. angular, complex lines at one moment, followed by gentle cocktail piano ticklings, block chording, stride piano- he runs the whole stylistic gamut with a flair and aggressive confidence that is infectious. the main obstacle standing in the way of taking down Nichols’ songs is trying to figure out what’s going on harmonically. i considered completely foregoing the progressions because they are very ambiguous; Nichols (and the bassists) tends to play a lot roots and fifths with no thirds or sevenths which makes classifying the chords difficult. instead, i wrote out a very general harmonic road map, mostly just the roots and sometimes, if i’m fairly sure, the chord quality. i strongly recommend that you listen to the recordings and draw your own conclusions. i chose six songs to post: “CRISP DAY“, “IT DIDN’T HAPPEN“, “TERPSICORE“, “THE GIG“, “THE THIRD WORLD” and “CRO-MAGNON NIGHTS“. they come from a fantastic three CD compilation called HERBIE NICHOLS, THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE RECORDINGS. another CD well worth checking out is LOVE, GLOOM, CASH, LOVE on Bethlehem Records. a while back, i took a look at a book called FOUR LIVES IN THE BEBOP BUSINESS by A.B. Spellman to learn more about Nichols. it was a little upsetting to read of his frustrated attempts at success but it chronicles the nearly there career of an artist who, if given the attention he well deserved, could have demonstrated alternatives to the dominant styles of composing and improvising of the bebop era.
“CRISP DAY” is a 32 bar song with a conventional AABA form. the A section is in the key of C. the bop flavored line has quality that is at once familiar and foreign. it is characteristic of many of his songs. the bridge starts in F. i hear so many influences running through his lines. now, i’m thinking 20th century classical composers like Bartok or Scriabin… the song has an eight bar intro. half of it is a piano riff, the second half is a drum break. the drums play a major role in Nichols’ arrangements. they function as another melodic voice in some cases and sometimes provide rhythmic turnaround during the blowing.
“IT DIDN’T HAPPEN” has an AABA form but the A sections are 12 bars making the song 44 bars. the minor melody has a riff-like feel to it and is played at fast tempo. like the previous song, the intro is eight bars, a four bar melodic motif and four bars of drums.
“TERPSICORE” is one of my favorite Nichols tunes. the intro borrows fragments of the main melody and is structured as a call and response between the piano and the drums. the form of the tune is pretty unique. the A section is eight bars long with a typically quirky melody line. the B section moves into a Latin flavored rhythm and is 16 bars long. the last section, A1 is 13 bars long. the drums finish the form with a six bar solo break. it’s played a little differently each time during the song; sometimes the piano solos over the section, sometimes the drums take the last six bars alone with the bass and piano playing a bass figure.
“THE GIG” gives us another strange intro. i wrote out this way: four bars full rhythm section intro, two bars in 6/4 time with whole rhythm section, followed by a four bar drum break in 4/4 time. the 75 measure form (with the eight measure drum break) is unconventional: ABABCABD. the nine bar A section has a stop time feel. it sounds like a children’s melody or something you might hear on the Benny Hill Show (just add a syrupy tenor sax to the melody line). the following melody on the eight bar B section is like some strange European folk dance music and moves in unique ways the C section is a whole other animal. it features a pattern that starts in C and moves down by minor 3rds to Eb. the D section starts out as a pretty typical jazz interlude. the last four bars feature a shape that’s played once and then transposed up a major 3rd. a really pretty sound.
“THE THIRD WORLD” is conventional 32 bar tune with an AABA form. the intro is eight bars; four bars with the full rhythm section, the next four are a drum break. the melody on the A section features a playful melody built with a descending sequence of triads over an unsual cyclic progression. the bridge is built on two 7(b5) chords and then a turnaround back to the A section.
“CRO-MAGNON NIGHTS” starts with a rumbling low note intro from the piano and bass which is answered by the drums. the first motif is repeated in a higher octave and again answered by the drums. the melody is a really quirky riff the first four bars and then an outline of an ascending half step progression over the next four bars. for the eight bar bridge, another interesting line in the key of C followed by the same line in Bb. the form of the 32 bar song is AABA but the melody and the harmonies give it an altogether unique character. i wonder if cavemen would party to this tune?
I first heard CANNONBALL ADDERLEY QUINTET IN CHICAGO sometime during my high school years, when i had just started to get into straight ahead jazz. up to that time, my tastes were a little more “contemporary”: Grover Washington Jr., David Sanborn, etc. i had just begun checking out Charlie Parker and trying to play some of his solos from the OMNIBOOK. well, i pulled this record out of my dad’s collection, attracted to the very cool cover, and put it on. if you’ve heard “Limehouse Blues”, you can imagine my shock when i experienced Adderley’s solo break. damn! no disrespect to Parker, who is one of Adderley’s stylistic fathers, but i never heard a saxophone swing so hard. his sound was so big and round and brilliant. his articulation was so precise. what an incredible technique, rifling out those 8th note runs at such a breakneck speed. i just had enough time to pick my jaw up off the floor when this OTHER guy comes in on tenor. while Adderley was playing a more or less conventional bop line, Coltrane was playing this other stuff, dealing with the harmonic material he was exploring on records like GIANTS STEPS and COLTRANE JAZZ. while Adderley blew over an F7 chord during the first four bars of his solo, Coltrane superimposed a high resolution harmonic sequence over those same four measures that eventually resolved to the next chord in the progression proper, D7. you could say that Adderley operated on the molecular level while Coltrane worked on a more rareified, atomic level. two very different sounds and approaches, set against each other, and on top of the fine rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (who is consistently incredible and funky), Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers, all of whom were members of the great Miles Davis Quintet at the time. this record was so eye opening to me. it really showed me how varied and personal improvisational styles could be. Adderley’s 8th note has a pronounced lope. he really digs into the beat with a very extroverted and jubilant swing. even on a song like “Grand Central”, which is in a minor key, and has a heavy feeling to it, the energy of his sound is very bright and (for lack of a better word) “happy”. Coltrane’s 8th note, on the other hand, is flatter and more streamlined. he often employs sweeping scalar runs and arpeggios that soar high above the rhythm section and move out of the regular 8th note pulse. he makes use of whole tone and harmonic minor scales that add a mysterious, almost atonal quality to his lines. his sound is at once an urgent wail, a cry or a roar. being an alto player and a jazz neophyte at the time, i naturally gravitated to Adderley, whose style was less cryptic than Coltrane’s. everything about the way Cannonball played appealed to me. he was a really well studied, hip, soulful sax player. Cannonball Adderley came off to me as a musician who found his groove pretty early in life and was content to remain there- now, don’t get me wrong, i don’t think there is anything wrong with that because he was an excellent player who could hold his own next to anyone (he was in the baddest band in the land when he made this recording fer chrissakes!) but Coltrane was different. i got the feeling that he was and would never be satisfied, that he was always trying to move forward. i started to revere Coltrane as i got deeper into music and started to understand what he was dealing with, and began to understand why he profoundly influenced so many, not only as a musician, but as a man trying to find something, attempting to transcend…
“Grand Central”, a song written by Coltrane, is 36 bars long with an AABA form. the form is a little peculiar because it begins at the end, the last measure of the song, which is used as a pick up bar. everything makes sense if you think of the song as beginning on the F min7 chord. the last A section is 12 bars long rather than eight bars, like the other A sections are. the melody is played over a progression of descending ii-Vs and lands on Bb minor:
one bar break… [| G min7(b5) C7(b9) |]
| F min7 | Bb min7 Eb7 | Ab min7 Db7 | F# min7 B7 |
| Bb min7 | B 7(b5) | Bb min7 | G min7(b5) C7(b9) |
the chord in the sixth measure bothers me a bit. sometimes i hear a Dominant sound and other times i hear a Major sound. even though the melody uses the natural 7th, i wrote it as a Dominant chord because of what i hear from the rhythm section and the soloists (actually, Cannonball and Coltrane utilize both the Major 7th and Dominant 7th at times)-(why does the Real Book list the chords in measures 5 through 7: F min7, Gb7, F min7?). the second A section is essentially the same as the first:
| F min7 | Bb min7 Eb7 | Ab min7 Db7 | F# min7 B7 |
| Bb min7 | B 7(b5) | Bb min7 |Bb min7 |
the first six bars of the bridge is a static 7th chord (perhaps, because of the melody, you could say that the progression moves between a 7sus4 and a 7 chord with the same root). this is followed by a four bar progression typical of Coltrane in that period. the saxophones have a little exchange over the bridge with Coltrane on a riff and Adderley playing another riff that has a more improvised feel to it. the horns don’t play the opening break coming out of the bridge into the last A section:
| B7 | B7 | B7 | B7 |
| B7 | B7 | Bb min7 E7 | A maj7 C7(b9) |
the final A section:
| F min7 | Bb min7 Eb7 | Ab min7 Db7 | F# min7 B7 |
the thing that’s a little confusing here is that unlike the one bar break that the begins the song, the solo breaks are two bars long. Cannonball is first up to bat… out of the park.
i can’t say enough about Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, two giants in the world of music. i’ll try to feature more material from both in coming posts…
I bought a copy of Mark Turner’s eponymous CD a few months back and before long, i had his version of “327 East 32nd Street” on repeat. as a saxophonist i, am always amazed by the facility of Turner (and Joshua Redman, who also plays on this tune). there is a passage from the 20th measure of the song that moves into the altissimo register of the tenor sax and is really difficult to make sing. Turner pulls it off like he’s playing in the comfortable middle register. although they are not the first to play with fluidity in the extreme registers, guys like Turner and Redman, Joe Lovano and others have set new technical standards for contemporary saxophonists. those high G’s and A’s are no longer only used as “devices”. by that i mean they are no longer just the domain of honkers and screechers (not a diss). what i’m trying to say is that these notes are more often being seemlessly incorporated into the melodic line as opposed to serving only as emotional exclamation points. Turner is a pretty scary saxophonist, a very unique voice among the younger generation of musicians. i first heard his work on YAM YAM, a CD he released several years back. i’m glad to hear that he’s recovering from his recent injury and is back playing.
Tristano’s tune has great melody line with some of the tricky rhythmic ideas that he’s known for. there are a couple of spots in the melody (bars 15 and 16, and bars 23 and 24) where i wrote down what i can only call a rough approximation of how it might be notated. keep in mind, i don’t have a recording of a Tristano version so i used the Turner version as a reference. you can listen to the clip and draw your own conclusions. if anyone has suggestions on how it should be notated, i’d love to hear them… listening to “327 East 32nd Street”, which is based on the “Out Of Nowhere” progression, inspired me to try and write my own melody. unfortunately, i’ve yet to record “Into thin Air” but you can hear a clip of “327 East 32nd Street” and check out charts of both tunes below…
“Bossa De Luxe” is a song off of a record called HI VOLTAGE by Hank Mobley. the song sounds just like the title; a nice, mellow latin beat with three horns playing warm harmonies- when i first started listening to it, i immediately thought of “Caravan”, the song made famous by Duke Ellington. the progression of the intro to “Bossa” is harmonically similar to the A section of “Caravan”- the form is AABA and is 32 bars long. the trumpet plays the melody with the other horns harmonizing underneath. “Peresina”, from the McCoy Tyner record, EXPANSIONS also has a latin flavor to it but harmonically and formally, it is a bit more of a challenge. on this song the three horns accompany the piano which is featured on the improvised opening vamp, the melody and the partially improvised bridge. after the extended intro vamp and a fanfare like section, the melody proper begins. the A section is 8 bars and is followed by an 8 bar B section. the song then returns to the fanfare section followed by blowing over A and B. the thing that defines this song, however, is the unique harmonic vision of Tyner. in his hands, any piece of music can become much more than ever can be written on a piece of paper. i enjoy listening to the opening vamp which becomes a song in itself. Tyner takes the static harmony and mines it for the hidden gems it contains… check out the lead sheets below. many thanks go out to Alan in Tokyo for the CDs!
What do you get when you throw together: fat sound, phenomenal technique, cleanly articulated lines, hardswinging 8th notes, humor, musicality and inventive melodies? you might come up with something like Christian McBride’s solo on “I’m An Old Cowhand”. the transcription below is from a date led by Billy Pierce called ROLLING MONK. the session features music by Monk, Rollins, pianist Donald Brown and Pierce. McBride was all of 20 years old at the time of this recording and already in command of his axe. he plays with an assurance that belies his age and it’s obvious from listening to this record that he was destined to do big things…
It’s been a while since i lasted posted any music. i took a nice vacation with the family and thought about nothing but putting back a few beers and eating mom and dad’s home cooking. while i was gone i got a couple of requests for lead sheets.
as anyone who’s checked out this blog knows, i am a big fan of Booker Little, so i was happy to oblige the request for a lead sheet to his song “ROUNDER’S MOOD”. it was featured on his record, BOOKER LITTLE 4 AND MAX ROACH. i’ve also heard it on a Joe Lovano date called TENOR LEGACY. it’s a really nice melodic line played at a pretty quick tempo. the song form is ABCAB with each section being 8 measures. the progression is more or less conventional so it wasn’t too hard to figure out. horns mostly play in unison, branching out into independent lines on occasion. the second horn line is muddy and difficult to hear in measures 13 and 14 so i took a bit of liberty with that. i may have to make revisions later.
Wayne Shorter is arguably the most influential composer in modern jazz. his conception played a huge part in shaping the sound of the Miles Davis quintet of the 60’s. listening to his classic recording dates on Blue Note, we get a glimpse of his unique take on composition and improvisation. his music of that period, like his improvisations seem to be an intense refinement of things he’d learned from his influences. everything feels essential and inevitable, nothing seems wasted. like many of his songs, Shorter’s “DANCE CADAVEROUS”, which comes from his seminal recording, SPEAK NO EVIL, is an extremely tough nut to crack. the big obstacle is deciphering his progressions which are very cryptic and personal. Herbie Hancock, the pianist on this date, demonstrates his mastery of the art of accompaniment, enveloping the melody and solos in a cloud of impressionist coloring. his voicings and chord choices never remain static and they conjure latent possibilities in a progression that the composer might not have expected. Ron Carter’s bass is removed from the traditional role of only serving as a rhythmic anchor and playing roots and fifths. he often occupies areas of a chord that lead instruments function in. this of course presents a problem to anyone attempting to transcribe what’s happening. the music is always moving forward from phrase to phrase, chorus to chorus. i don’t know if Shorter has ever published a definitive lead sheet to this song. mine is just a guess so please take it as that. i also referenced a version of this song from the Larry Willis recording, HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING?, on which the rhythm section plays in a less ambiguous style. however, that presented another problem and raised more questions because his version often diverged from the original recording.
“DANCE CADAVEROUS”, one of my favorite Shorter songs is a thing of beauty- a gentle waltz with an elegant melodic line played by Shorter along with the late Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. the melody is simple enough but what adds intrigue is the harmonic framework that it’s set in. the song begins with an 8 measure introduction:
|| Ab Maj7 | Ab Maj7 | Ab Maj7 | Ab Maj7 |
| A7 | A7 | A7 (b9, b13) | A7 (b9, b13) |
Shorter and Hubbard play a simple three note riff that is answered by Hancock’s piano. the song then moves into the main melody. the first chord, B min(Maj7) lends to the eerie quality of the song:
|| B min (Maj7) | B min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) |
the second eight bars of the melody imitate the first but the progression eventually modulates to a G Maj7 (the relative major of E min7, the chord that one would expect to be the destination after B7 (b9) ):
| B min (Maj7) | B min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) |
from G maj7, the progression works its way to Ab min11. the fifth bar of this progression gets pretty sticky! i’m regarding the note G in the melody of the fifth and sixth bars of this section as ornamentation and not material from the chord (which may be totally off the mark).
| G Maj7 | G Maj7 | C7 (b5) | C7 (b5) |
| C7 (b9, b13) | Ab7 sus4 | Ab min11 | Ab min11 |
the progression then makes its way back to B min (Maj7) using a series of ii-V’s:
| F min9 (b5) | F min9 (b5) | Bb7 (b9, b13) | Bb7 (b9, b13) |
the melody and chord progression repeats from the top but the progression changes from the fifth bar (moving to D Maj7 (#5) instead of back to B min (Maj7). both chords share the same notes) while the melody remains essentially the same:
|| B min (Maj7) | B min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) | C min (Maj7) |
| D Maj7 (#5) | D Maj7 (#5) | D13 sus4 | D13 (b9) |
in the next four bars, the color of the chord is G maj with the bassline descending along a G major scale:
| G Maj7 | G/F# | E min7 | G/D |
the next eight measures are the same as measures 17-24 except for the chord on the first two bars which is a C# min7 (b5) instead of a G Maj7 (they have a very similar sound).
the last eight bars move the harmony back toward the original tonality of B minor but instead of landing there, the last ii-v ( |C# min9 (b5) | F#7sus4 (b9)| )moves to C Major:
LAST SESSION, a date led by Lee Morgan, features a couple of great compositions by saxophonist Billy Harper- I had the opportunity to take Harper’s ensemble class at the New School a few years back. we got a chance to work through many of his intriguing compositions. as cool as they are to play, what fascinates me most are the titles he gives to his songs. with titles like “Call Of The Wild And Peaceful Heart” and “Dance Eternal Spirits, Dance!”, it’s obvious that Harper has a bit of a poetic streak running through him. perhaps it doesn’t seem so important, but a song’s title can evoke an image in the listener and prepare him for what might follow. Harper’s titles are big and bold, they invite us into higher states of consciousness. love it! the influence of Coltrane is very apparent in Harper’s playing. you can definitely hear it in his lean sound and aggressive technique. I also hear Sonny Rollins and generous portions of Wayne Shorter. Harper solos with a composer’s sensibility. he develops his solos motivically and is conscious of balance and space. he carries on dialogues with himself, asking and then answering his questions. there’s also another strand in his conception that links him to the honkers and the shouters, gospel music and r+b. it’s the same thing I hear in guys like Oliver Lake and Aurthur Blythe. there’s a gutbucket sensibility bubbling just underneath his lines. it gives even his most oblique statements a very rooted blues feeling. his biting sound has a vocal, human quality to it. it’s very emotional and unabashed. just listen to him on “Croquet Ballet” when he takes the melody from the trumpet and flute halfway through. he just sings. even when he’s playing background lines (check him out behind Morgan’s melody on “Capra Black”) the leading edge of his sound surges through everything else. “Croquet Ballet” is waltz that moves back and forth between swing and Afro Cuban feels. the Afro Cuban sections are really loose and danceable. “Capra Black” starts with a huge, dark fanfare by the horns, and then into the melody, played by Morgan. the band is pretty big, at times featuring two bass players and four horns, horn doubles and occasional percussion. the song is a definite nod harmonically in the direction of Shorter. it reminds me of a caravan slowly moving through a vast desert. the droning bass figures evokes images of ancient civilizations. i let the mp3 clips run long so you can hear some of Harper’s solos. he’s a very talented composer and saxophonist that more people should be aware of…
“Straight Ahead” is the title song from an album by Abbey Lincoln, released in 1961. it features many talents that have been mentioned in previous posts such as: Max Roach, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy, Julian Priester and Art Davis. the song also includes a beautiful half chorus solo by the one and only Coleman Hawkins, who sounds completely at home in the company of so many younger players, who were in the process of expanding and redefining the music. “Straight Ahead”, written by pianist Mal Waldron, who is most well known for his songs “Left Alone” (also on this record) and “Soul Eyes”, is a 35 bar ballad with an almost traditional AABA form (the last A section is extended to include a 4 bar outro/ intro). it’s a very somber and dark melody, a great vehicle for Lincoln’s gritty, powerful voice. Lincoln, along with Earl Baker, provide lyrics that speak of a journey fraught with danger, and the need for strength, determination and realistic expectations. the energy of the song is in keeping with the overall vibe of the STRAIGHT AHEAD. there’s a lot of great music on this record. other stand outs are Lincoln’s funky, self-assured phrasing on “When Malindy Sings”, “African Lady” with its great horn arrangement, shifting rhythms and more of Hawkins’ tenor, and “In The Red” which gets my vote for the theme song of 2009 America…
MIRROR MIRROR is a quartet record that features Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Chick Corea on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. three of the four members contributed material for this date and two of the standouts, in my opinion, are “Mirror, Mirror” by Corea and “Keystone” by Carter. “Mirror, Mirror” is a 32 bar waltz. it highlights a very singable melodic line set atop a complex chord progression with changing chords from bar to bar. the first harmonic phrase is:
—
|: CMaj7 | E7#9 | FMaj7 | A7#9 |
the A7#9 resolves to a DMaj7, which begins the second phrase, an imitation of the first, up a whole step:
| DMaj7 | F#7#9 | GMaj7 | B7#9 |
the progression moves back to CMaj7 and starts a progression that descends chromatically by half steps:
| CMaj7 | B13 | BbMaj7 | AMin11 |
the progression then makes it’s way back to C13:
| F7 | B/F# | C/G | C13 |
and then to an imitation of the first four bars, this time starting on BMaj7:
| BMaj7 | D#7#9 | EMaj7 | G#7#9 |
the next phrase is a group of major chords descending by minor thirds to Bb13:
| Gmaj7 | EMaj7| DbMa7#11 | Bb13 |
the last eight bars are as follows:
| A13b9 | Dmin7 | G13b9 sus4 |E7#9b13/G# |
| Amin11 | D7b5 | Fmin11 | G7b13 :|
because the harmonic colors are always shifting, it’s a formidable task to create coherent melodic lines that express the chord qualities.
although MIRROR MIRROR isn’t usually considered among the strongest material by Joe Henderson, the song “Keystone” is pretty incredible and the CD is well worth the price on the strength of it alone. it’s a 24 bar blues head with a repeating riff, played by Henderson and Corea, that is answered by Carter and Higgins. the song is straightforward and the solos are great but the really fantastic thing about this piece is the dynamic interaction between the drums and the bass. Carter maintains a two feel throughout the blowing, playing very melodically and functioning kind of like a second soloist (and playing great lines), while Higgins plays with a lively, very danceable four feel. this creates a rhythmic dissonance that a listener assumes will be resolved by the bass eventually walking a four feel. but Carter never does. Higgins, for his part, implies a regular ride pattern and constantly peppers his rhythms with fills on the toms and snare. the feel is pulled in two directions at once, the result being a friction that permeates the improvisations. i imagine a kite flying in a stiff wind; Carter’s earthy, funky groove is like a tether that keeps Higgins’ darting, jabbing rhythm from floating off into the atmosphere. i let the mp3 clip run past the melody a bit to give you a little taste. great music. check ‘em out below…
Prince Lasha (1929-2008) and Sonny Simmons are two reed players who, along with others like Trane, Coleman, and Dolphy, sought expand the vocabulary of the of the saxophone and work loose the harmonic and rhythmic structures that by the 60’s, had hardened into well defined styles. both came of age in the western U.S. and kept company with many of the iconoclasts of the developing free jazz movement in that region of the country. though neither are generally well known, both are great instrumentalists and forward thinkers whose music still sounds very contemporary. “The Island Song” is from a record called FIREBIRDS, co-led by Lasha and Simmons. it features a great melody built on a repeating riff that moves up chromatically through different keys. at the bridge, they play a different riff which also moves chromatically but in a downward direction. the song has a post-bop(py) sound to it until they move into the improvisations, where they freely blow, in groups and individually. the rhythmic concept is pretty conventional, keeping a more or less steady, swinging 4/4 pulse, while the sounds going on above it dovetail the move toward freer modes of expression exemplified by Ornette Coleman. the sidemen are Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Charles Moffett on drums and Buster Williams on bass. “The Island Song” establishes a very earthy and emotional energy that maintains through the rest of FIREBIRDS. i had the pleasure of experiencing the music of Sonny Simmons several years ago in small San Francisco club. i can’t describe it without using vague, fuzzy words like “mindblowing” or ” crazy” or “unreal”, but those are the words circling around in my brain as i think about that show. anyway, FIREBIRDS is a great album that i don’t hear too much talk of. if you see it or any other recordings by Simmons or Lasha, do yourself a favor and add it to your collection. until then, check out the music below…
If a tree falls in the forest but no one’s there to hear it… It’s really great to hear from folks who’ve taken a look at PRACTICE PORTAL. i post transcriptions and other stuff for myself as much as for anyone else. it’s a form of self-motivation, it keeps me focused on practicing and learning new things about music. still, receiving feedback from other people is a definite shot in the arm. i really appreciate any comments, good, bad and ugly, about the site. let me know what you want to see more or less of and i’ll see what i can do about it. With that said, many thanks go out to TJ for adding a link to PRACTICE PORTAL at SOUNDBYTE CULTURE. his site features transcriptions of Hal Galper and Bud Powell, audio and video clips, and various commentary. be sure to check him out. thanks again, TJ…
As the U.S. and the world awaits the new stimulus package from Obama and the legislature, i thought i would consult the wisdom of another head of state to see what he had to say. Lester Young’s thoughts might not do much for the economy but they will most definitely stimulate the mind of anyone who cares to listen. these three sides are all variations on rhythm changes, and on them, Young displays his control, finesse, incredible rhythmic sense and that SOUND. each of these sides feature an overt, bouncing beat with a really prominent 4 feel. it’s too bad that jazz isn’t much considered as dance music anymore. playing for dancers profoundly effects how a band and a soloist feels the beat, and seeing music expressed physically in dance, its artistic sibling, is a sensation that musicians should endeavor to experience as often as possible. the musicians on these sides: Count Basie, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Freddie Green and Dickie Wells, to name a few, collaborate towards evoking an infectious and elegant swing.
the saxophone is capable of such a broad range of expression; in the hands a of a master it can attain the level of our innate instrument, the human voice. nowadays there is much talk of the immanent fusion of man and machine, of technology becoming so fast and complex as to be able to smoothly interface with the processes of the human mind and body. well, Prez was there, way back when. in his hands, the saxophone became a flesh and blood appendage; he was definitely one with his horn. hearing guys who’ve reached that level- Bird, Miles, Trane, Monk, Mingus… is, in a word, stimulating. these solos won’t pay your bills but they’re likely to bring a smile to your face. check ‘em out…
To say that Lennie Tristano was a uniquely talented musician is to some, stating the obvious. but perhaps it isn’t. his isn’t exactly a household name, even among musicians. and many who do know of him are only familiar with his extra-musical reputation as an enigmatic and reclusive person. his influence on a wide range of musicians, even if unacknowledged, is quite strong. not only was he an educator with an ever-growing following of talented musicians, most notably, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, he ran his own record label (he was one of the first musicians to do so) and was a pioneer in the application of tape splicing, multi-tracking and other editing techniques (gasp!). he was also a forward thinking conceptualist, no doubt planting a few of the seeds that gave birth to the free jazz phenomenon, and of course he was flat out an amazing improvisor as evinced by the transcription below.
“Line Up” is 32 bar progression based on the chord progression to “All Of Me”. the song is off of a recording called LENNIE TRISTANOwhich is part of a twofer CD withTHE NEW TRISTANO. “Line Up” is comprised of 7 choruses of some really personal and inventive melodic lines. Tristano doesn’t play an opening melody; after resting for 8 bars, letting the rhythm section do its thing (the rhythm track was pre-recorded; rumor has it that Tristano’s lines were recorded at half speed. the piano sound has been altered, nevertheless…) he dives headlong into his improvisation. what strikes me most strongly about this solo, aside from his extraordinary technique and clean articulation, is his wide of use rhythmically displaced phrases. for example, in the 9th and 10th bars of his solo, he plays a simple melodic figure. he then repeats the figure, up a diatonic 4th, but instead of starting it on the 1st beat of the 11th measure as one would expect, he begins it on the 4th beat of the 10th measure. this device creates in the listener a curious, off-balance feeling. he’ll also accent his line on the downbeats from time to time, like he’s tamping the brakes on a car; it works to dissipate some of the forward energy of his line that at times, threatens to spin out of control. Tristano is always, however, able to resolve the rhythmic aspect of his line in sophisticated and unusual ways. nowadays, these improvisational devices are more or less meat and potatoes but back in 1955, it was quite innovative and unusual. throughout his solo, he plays with a really propulsive, aggressive swing and his line is shaped rhythmically by using a wide variety of syncopated accents. he sounds as if he’s working at a piece of hot metal with a mallet, hammering his line into shape. he also uses a device of playing a melodic shape a half step above the underlying harmony and then shifting it back into key. for the most part Tristano’s solo is built around 8th note runs but every so often, he’ll turn on a really crispy triplet figure or jab you in the ear with a fat chord cluster.
As i listen again to “Line Up”, i think immediately of Herbie Hancock and the way he played with Miles Davis’ band on recordings like “Nefertiti”, “Miles Smiles” and “Live At The Plugged Nickel”. his solo passages are only sparsely accompanied by his left hand. in many instances, he functions rather like a 3rd horn than as a rhythm section player. it’s a great way to keep the harmonic moorings loose and it gives the music a colder, leaner sound. my guess is that Hancock spent some time checking out Tristano.
There are many who say Tristano was too clinical and unemotional in his playing. i can’t agree with that opinion. i can only say that, when listening to LENNIE TRISTANO, THE NEW TRISTANO, and particularly when seeing his DVD, THE COPENHAGEN CONCERT, an image comes to me of a man who was intensely involved with his music, no doubt to the detriment of his commercial success, who was unconcerned with the mannerisms and poses that many musicians assume, perhaps because they think they have to. as a listener, Tristano’s music demands that you bring something to the table, that you meet him (at least) half way. his music seems to exist in a more rarefied element, outside of the main currents of life. he could arguably be perceived as having a more European (western) attitude vis-a-vis art (although he professed his admiration for Bird and his peers, and had a deep understanding of the history of jazz, as his playing demonstrates); a very different stance from a musician like Max Roach, for example, (a frequent collaborator with Booker Little who, was featured on the previous post) who often used his music as a vehicle to address socio-political concerns. his music, in my opinion seeks to inspire the listener to become more deeply involved in the world. where Tristano’s music is self-effacing, Roach’s is extroverted. he, i think, saw himself and his music as a part of, existing on the same level as, the community at large- a more African conception. in that sense, though his music is as forward looking and modern as Tristano’s, it is more accessible because its energy works to draw the listener in. i can see value in both positions.
I don’t profess to speak for any musician other than myself so please take any of my comments about musicians’ attitudes and philosophies with a grain of salt…
When taken in the context of the nascent civil rights movement in 50’s and 60’s America, a HUGE discussion could jump off from here involving the differing conceptions of what the role of an artist is, or if there even should be a role; whether or not an artist has any obligations outside of his art. is jazz inherently political? does race have an effect on how music was (is) perceived and marketed? is jazz largely seen as no longer relevant because it has become, over the years, too “arty”, too aloof? i won’t go there (unless you want me to…let me know, because i kind of want to) because as i said previously, the purpose of this blog is to discuss (the technical and artistic aspects of) music. however, given the failure to seriously address the complex history of the U.S., discussions of its arts will contain any number of elephants, calmly sitting at the back of the room, wondering why they aren’t being acknowledged. Ethan Iverson, in his blog, DO THE MATH, writes eloquently about these and other underdiscussed issues…
I’m sorry to say that i don’t know a whole lot about Lennie Tristano but i plan to learn more. i’m going to start with a book that was recommended to me calledJAZZ VISIONS: LENNIE TRISTANO AND HIS LEGACY, by Peter Ind. in the future, i plan to post some more examples of Tristano’s highly individual playing…
Booker Little’s date, Out Front, is perhaps his best recording, followed closely by Booker Little And Friend. both are standouts because of excellent writing and blowing but what puts Out Front out front are the personnel choices: Eric Dolphy on woodwinds and Julian Priester on trombone, with the rhythm section of Max Roach on percussion, Ron Carter or Art Davis on bass, and Don Friedman on piano. the addition of Eric Dolphy, who doubles on bass clarinet and flute, opens up more textural possibilities for Little’s writing, which he takes full advantage of. also, to my ear, because the record features only original material by Little, Out Front sounds like a more personal vision. the 7 songs feel closely related and flow into and out of each other. in these days of 20 song recordings, you don’t often hear “whole” records anymore. somewhat like Kind Of Blue, Out Front is a brief but emphatic statement of an artist’s vision that leaves a listener wanting more but doesn’t leave him feeling short-changed. the title, “Out Front” also suggests that Little saw this record as his introduction to the world as a bandleader. “Hazy Hues” begins with a mysterious unison line over a two chord progression:
[F min/ / ] [Gb7/ / ] [F min/ / ] [F min/ / ]
Little, with Dolphy on flute, plays the first phrase. this is answered by Priester’s trombone along with the rhythm section featuring Roach on tympami. Little and Dolphy play a second line which is again followed by the other musicians. after a brief cadenza, played by Little over the same progression as above, the main melody begins in 5/4 time. the first four bars of the progression look like this:
[Bb min (maj7)/ / / / ] [G min9 (b5)/ / / / ]
[Eb min11/ / / / ] [B13 (b5)/ / / / ]
the horns outline the Bb min(maj7) chord in the style of a musical canon. the other horns then support Little as he states the rest of the melodic phrase over the next three chords. what a beautiful progression! 3 of the 4 chords utilize the sound of an augmented triad (A Db F) and, excepting the Eb min11 chord, retain the essential color of the first chord. the next part of the progression is a group of Bb minor chords that features a moving tone, played by the two lower horns, that starts on the 5th and goes up by half steps to the sixth, then back down to the b6th:
[Bb min/ /Bb min (b6)/ ] [Bb min6/ /Bb minb6/ ]
[E13/ /Eb13 / ] [Eb13/ / / / ]
the Bb minb6 chord makes a strong move to an E7b13 and then to an Eb13 chord to end the phrase. Little often uses a three horn cluster in his arrangements that has the outer voices spread out over a major 7th with the inner voice either a fourth or a tritone away from the bottom voice. the bottom horn voice is then positioned a minor 7th above the bass voice. depending on the placement of the middle horn, Little gets a nice, open dominant or minor thirteenth sound. with the next phrase, Little crunches the horns together into tight clusters over a Db in the bass. the first cluster is Eb, E, Ab. the second is an A major triad in first inversion. following that, the first cluster is transposed up a fourth: Ab, A, Db. the final cluster is G, Bb, F#. the phrase is then ended with two min (maj7) chords. notating the fourth chord in this sequence is a little iffy. my guess is this:
[Db min9/ /Db min (b6)/ ] [Db min (b6)/ /G dim (maj7)/Db/ ]
[Eb min (maj7) / / / / ] [Db min (maj7)/ / / / ]
the next phrase starts like the last but moves in a different direction:
[Db min9/ /D maj9/ /] [F# min7/ / / / ]
[Bb min (maj7) / / E (maj7#11)/ Bb__Ab maj13]
[G7 (b5)/ /Ab13/ ] [A/G/ / / / ] [A/G/ / / / ]
the Bb min(maj7) chord starts a moving line in the two bottom horns that is just plain sick. the bottom voice moves along a diminished scale and finally lands on an E (in the A/G) chord. the middle voice runs along a Bb min scale, then to the third of the G7 (b5) and Ab13 chords and comes to rest on an A. the E finds resolution by moving to F in Bb min (maj7) when the melody is restated, while the A brings to mind the major 7th of the initial chord of the melody. the reason i labeled the last chord of this sequence A/G is because i couldn’t hear a seventh. the quality of the chord is “hazy”. the forceful return to the initial melody puts all ambiguity to rest. really beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated writing by Little, who at the time of this recording was around 23 years old(!) after the restatement of the melody, the song moves to a short coda section:
some more nice counterpoint under the melody by the bottom voices. like before, many of the chords in this sequence share very similar colorings. the first three all have an Ab minor sound over changing bass notes, the next two are dominant chords with identical alterations, a minor third apart, and the last six chords have an Eb minor sound over the bass notes. theoretically speaking, many of the chords pairings are perhaps tenuously related. i like the idea of imagining harmonic progressions as colors on a canvas with varying degrees of lightness, saturation and hue, that bleed into and out of each other. i like hearing things that i can’t quite explain. there are many such instances on this record, which is what makes this recording so special to my eyes… the last section, a vamping interlude that is used as a segue into the solos, is a series of horn clusters over an Ab in the bass. i won’t even bother to try and notate the progression. just listen to it… Max Roach switches back to tympani during this section. the sound is really tense and martial, almost like a fanfare heralding the arrival of some high ranking group of dignitaries. in this case, they are Booker Little, followed closely by Eric Dolphy and Julian Priester, all of whom blow great solos… check it out.
My method of gathering material for these posts has been pretty haphazard. often, while i’m transcribing a solo, another version of the song i’m listening to will come to mind. such was the case when i was transcribing Eddie Harris’ solo from “Love For Sale” for the last post. i started hearing pieces of a Joe Henderson solo from Grant Green’s record, SOLID from the Blue Note label. the session features lots of extended blowing from the likes of Green, Henderson, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Bob Cranshaw. the song “Ezz-Thetic” was written by George Russell and uses a progression that is similar to “Love For Sale” but the A sections are in a minor tonality and the progression is sparser. the feel of this recording, with 2/3rds of the classic Coltrane rhythm section on hand, is pretty loose and open ended, allowing the soloists to stretch out. Henderson grabs on to Spaulding’s last couple of notes and jumps right into the fray, incorporating all those devices that made him such a versatile and convincing soloist: a wealth of melodic material, rhythmic variety, a flexible, hard swinging beat, an ability to reference the harmonic contour of a song but not be imprisoned by it, and of course, that SOUND. check it out…
I first had a chance to hear Eddie Harris while i was living in California in the early nineties. back then, i often played at a spot named Jazz Etc. which was situated around Leimert Park, an area in South Central L.A. with a rich music and arts scene. while i was backstage, i was introduced to Mr. Harris who promptly asked me what my sign is. when i told him, he started into a short monologue covering astrology, the planets, etc. i had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and wasn’t sure if he was just putting me on or if he was really serious because the whole time he talked to me, he had a this far away, knowing smile on his face. later that night, he got up to do a song but instead of playing horn, he did a scat solo. maybe scat isn’t quite the right word for what he did; it sounded somewhat like yodeling. at times, similar to things i’ve heard by the great vocalist Dwight Tribble, and to what Leon Thomas did on Pharoah Sander’s Karma, on the song, “The Creator Has A Master Plan”. the sounds that came from him were incredible. wild arpeggios and interval leaps set against the backdrop of a familiar song (i don’t remember what it was, probably a standard or a blues). the crowd, mainly an older audience of serious blues fans, loved it. i loved it too, kind of like how i love a rollercoaster ride- after i’m safely back on the ground. it was really bluesy but very out there. i didn’t know what to think at the time. a lot of what he was doing went right over my head, but i was fascinated and curious. i had heard some of his music prior to that. my dad had the record he did with Les McCann called Swiss Movement that featured the songs, “Compared To What” and “Cold Duck Time”. and of course i was familiar with “Freedom Jazz Dance” (his version and the Miles Davis version). i also remember another record my dad had called The Best Of Eddie Harris. anyway, shortly after that experience i bought a book that he wrote called The Intervallistic Concept, an amazing compilation of exercises and his thoughts on music. like his scat solo, the book was WAY over my head, so i eventually lost interest in it out of pure frustration. i also lost track of my copy of the book but i plan to find it again to see if, some 20 odd years later, things make a little more sense to me. a while later i got a hold of a cassette tape of a duo with Harris and Ellis Marsalis called Homecoming, an awesome recording. “Love For Sale” is featured on a twofer cd called The In Sound/ Mean Greens. there is a lot of great, funky music on these albums. both recordings feature the incredible rhythm section of Cedar Walton on piano, Ron Carter on bass and the one and only Billy Higgins on drums. in addition, a really nice trumpeter named Ray Codrington shares the front line with Harris on many of the tracks. when i heard Harris’ solo on “Love For Sale”, the previous experiences mentioned above made a little more sense to me. i love this solo! of course there’s all those quartal patterns that are pretty amazing given the tempo of the song, but what i love most is his sound and how he hits those fat high notes and will drop a really bluesy line into the mix from time to time to let listeners know where it’s all coming from… there’s so much to Eddie Harris. he was a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, lyricist, comedian, author and a pioneer, among other things. there’s more to him than i can possibly touch on here. anyone who’s interested in knowing more about him should go to Eddie Harris.com…
Let me say at the outset that i have no intention of turning this blog into a political one. so, in keeping with my general aim, i’ll take this tact: words and music are inextricably linked and a skilled orator is at times a composer, an improvisor and a performer. with that in mind, i’ll call Barack Obama’s speech a solo and use that as an excuse to include a transcription (not mine) of his “music” on this post… i was deeply impressed by the words of President Obama on inauguration day. On hearing them, i felt as if we, as americans, had finally found a leader who has the potential to urge us to greater things; a man who, with the power of his music, can galvanize a nation. his song set the bar pretty high, relatively speaking, for himself and americans but those of us who believe in the potential of america don’t see his aspirations as unrealistic. well, the first chorus was definitely swingin’ and it left me looking forward to seeing if he’ll actually develop those ideas or fall back on the same ol’ cliches we’ve all heard time and time again. i don’t have an allegiance to any political party (though i’m not at all ashamed to say i voted for President Obama) and i am by nature highly skeptical of the rhetoric of any politician. but for now, i’ll suspend my judgement and hum along to the music of our new American President…
Every jazz musician has a favorite Horace Silver song. for some, it’s a bop head like “No Smoking”, “Room 608″ or “Nutville”. others like his more overtly Caribbean flavored songs like “Que Pasa”, “Cape Verdean Blues” and “Nica’s Dream”. then you have the mid tempo foot tappers like “Strollin’” and “Sister Sadie”. i, for one, have always dug his ballads. “Peace” is a favorite of mine. there’s also “Shirl”, a ballad he featured on Six Pieces Of Silver. Silver is great at conjuring a mood- so much of his music is programmatic. and i’ve always been a sucker for songs dedicated to women. this song evokes an image but a very elusive one. the music has an ambiguous and unfinished quality about it. i’m only guessing, but “Shirl” must have been a very complicated and intriguing woman. the first four measures sound like the opening strains of some forgotten impressionist era piano prelude. the first two 13b9 chords ring out and are then answered by two more of the same transposed up a fourth. following that is a group of 7#9 chords that starts on F and moves down to E, Db, Bb and A before resolving to Ab Maj and then on to a D7#9 chord. a brief progression follows that sounds almost cadential in nature but before a listener has a chance to get to too settled, the progression again gathers a head of tension by utilizing a ii-V progression from G min, moving upward by fourths, to F min with an Ab in the melody, which creates a tension that wants to (eventually) resolve to a G (in an Eb Maj chord) but instead, by way of an Eb7#9 chord, the melody moves to an F#, triggering a progression similar in nature to the previous sequence of 7#9 chords (F, Eb, Bb, A). it feels as if the listener is being sucked into a pit of quicksand. there are shifts in the time signature and pulse that evoke a mood of hesitancy- “slow your roll. don’t say too much, you might get yourself in trouble!” the bridge moves smoothly into a cycle of ii-Vs descending chromatically. finally, there’s a short suspended chord with a moving line in the bass voice, then a restating of the original melody. Horace Silver’s piano solo is buoyant and energetic. juxtaposed against the dark, brooding progression he sounds as if he’s trying to keep the faith, to stay optimistic during a troubled time. like he’s tryng to draw something else out of the progression, throw light on the progression from a different angle. but then the improvisation abruptly moves back to the melody, almost stumbling over itself. trying to read into an artist’s intentions is not something i want to do too much of on this blog, but it’s an amusing way to take up a little space… let’s just say this, it’s a really great piece of music that i can listen to many times over. i’ll call what i did below a “sketch” because i wasn’t able to pick out all the notes in the harmonies that Silver plays. but i did write out the shell of the piece and filled in chord tones as i could hear them. the way i wrote the tune formally- where i put the time signature change- is my best guess at what “Shirl” might look like on paper. oh yeah- when you get a chance, check out Horace Silver’s autobiography, Let’s Get To The Nitty Gritty. a friend of mine lent me the book a while back. it’s a quick read with some nice stories about Silver and the musicians that surrounded him…
While i was listening to music to find material for my last post about Mulgrew Miller, i dug out a copy of Vincent Herring’s record,Evidence which features Wallace Roney, Ira Coleman, Carl Allen and Miller. on it, they do a version of “Hindsight” by Cedar Walton- over the years, many comparisons have been made between Miller and Mcoy Tyner, perhaps because of some stylistic similarities in their improvisations- when i hear Miller- at least compositionally- one of the first people i think about is Cedar Walton. Walton has written so many great songs over the years like “Bolivia”, ” Firm Roots”, “Clockwise” and the song featured on this post. speaking as an improvising composer, i’ve always been most intrigued by his chord progressions. “Hindsight” features a nice vamp which moves between B7#9, C7#9 and A7#9 and then the melody, played over a descending 1/2 step progression that begins from C and alternates between major and dominant chords on its way down to where it finally comes to a rest on E maj. it’s a challenge to improvise melodically over those changes, to play over the whole phrase rather than from chord to chord to chord. in the hands of masters like Miller and Walton, progressions like these are material for amazing improvisations… Walton is a great example of a composer improvisor. he sounds as if he’s reading/ writing a piece of music somewhere in his head as he’s improvising. i just finished pulling his right hand line off the recording and the notes on paper are really beautiful to look at. all the fat and excess carved away to leave a finely sculpted line. he has a highly developed sense of symmetry and form, undoubtedly honed during his years as a songwriter. you can see the results of many years lived with this music. wow… let me shut up. his version of “Hindsight” is from his date called Composerwhich features Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Vincent Herring, Ralph Moore and Victor Lewis. below are transcriptions of Miller’s and Walton’s right hand…
Mulgrew Miller is a pianist that every one should be aware of. but he’s one of those guys that musicians speak about with an air of reverence while general jazz listeners , who may know the name, can’t quite place the face. he’s a “musician’s musician”, a double-edged compliment reserved for guys who don’t get the attention and accolades they deserve. for quite a while now, Miller has been one of the most in demand pianists on the scene due in large part to his wide palette of harmonic shades and a highly personal melodic vocabulary. i first became aware of his playing from listening to a cd called Wingspan, which also introduced me to the ridiculous alto playing of one of his longtime associates, Kenny Garrett. i spent many an hour listening to that joint, in awe of the improvisations and the compositions. Miller has a real gift for writing catchy, singable melodies and setting them in a sophisticated harmonic framework. his melodic lines brim with elliptical patterns while his left hand evokes a harmonic mood that moves quickly between earthy and ethereal. i no longer have a copy of that record but i do have many others including With Our Own Eyes, Time and Again, The Countdownand Hand In Hand, the record that i pulled this transcription off of. another record, one on which he’s a sideman, that to this day is near the top of my playlist is Cassandra Wilson’s Blue Skies. Miller drops gem after gem in his soloing and wraps Wilson’s awesome voice in a thick haze of soul and depth. “Thinkin’ Out Loud” is loosely based on “Minority” but instead of the traditional turnaround, the song instead sits on an E major chord for four bars before a ii-V over two bars takes it back to the top. i transcribed the right hand line and when i get up the courage, i’ll try to pick out the left hand. in the meantime, check it out…
“SATELLITE”, from the Coltrane record, COLTRANE SOUND, is conceptually similar to songs like “COUNTDOWN” and “26-2″. it demonstrates his intense scrutiny and re-imagining of jazz harmony. in Coltrane, we are blessed to have a musician who was a deep thinker and theoretician, as well as a highly skilled practitioner, a rare combination in any discipline. we’re also very fortunate that Coltrane’s development was so well documented… “SATELLITE” is more appealing to me than, say, “GIANT STEPS” because at the end of each chorus there’s an eight measure pedal point that allows the chord progression to breathe a bit and a soloist to regroup for the next pass. throughout his six chorus solo, instead of letting up, Coltrane uses those eight bars to build the momentum of his solo through the use of dissonance. as a result, the top of each successive chorus sounds like a dam breaking, unable to hold the water behind it. Trane plays a beautiful solo accompanied by Elvin Jones on drums and Steve Davis on bass…
Lately i’ve been rereading a great book, the second part of Chester Himes’ two volume autobiography entitled “My Life Of Absurdity”. Himes, an awesome writer and contemporary of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, John A. Williams, etc., spent a large part of his adult life as an expatriate artist searching for and eventually finding a measure of success after leaving the U.S., where he was largely neglected. as the title suggests, Himes’ tale is one filled with enough adventure, humor, heartbreak and stories so bizarre that they test the limits of credulity. he speaks with gritty, bitter honesty about the lifestyle of expatriate black artists in postwar Europe. the first volume, “The Quality Of Hurt”, which deals with his life before leaving the states, is just as incredible. perhaps Himes and Mal Waldron have nothing more in common than spending the larger part of their artistic life living abroad. unlike Himes, Waldron didn’t want for work while in New York. he was busy as a leader and sideman before his departure. also, unlike Himes, he seemed to adapt to his new environment in Europe without too much difficulty… below are two of Waldron’s compositions from different points in his career. the first, “Fire Waltz”, is from the record, 
Here are some more transcriptions from one of my favorite pianists, Mulgrew Miller. as i mentioned in an earlier post, Miller’s compositions share something in common with the great Cedar Walton. they’re made up of memorable, even singable melodies, and set on top of unconventional, sophisticated progressions. they’re accessible and elusive at the same time. the two songs below are good examples of what i mean. “For Those Who Do” is from the record 
The late, great Grover Washington Jr. has always been one of my saxophone heroes. his playing, ever soulful and earthy, never fails to move me. i was so pleased to come across this cut from his early career as a sideman with Leon Spencer, before he shot to stardom with a string of hit records on the CTI/ Kudu label. “Message From The Meters” is a 12 bar funk blues from a record called 
Honestly, i’ve never been a big fan of guitars drenched in electronic effects or, as i call them, affected guitars, in largely acoustic settings. but that’s never stopped me from enjoying a lot of John Scofield’s work. there’s the great record, “So Near, So Far”, led by Joe Henderson, which was featured in an earlier post. there’s also his date, 
Hat”. like “Goodbye”, “Since” is an understated, bluesy ballad with a 12/8 feel. it has an AABA form, starting out with Scofield alone on the first section. the band then joins him for the rest of the tune. the melody moves beautifully, especially during the bridge as the harmony wanders toward Amaj but never quite makes it there. then there’s Lovano, who, with his dark, woody tenor that serves a great contrast to Scofield’s ethereal soundbending, just seems never to sound bad. he delivers a quiet, lyrical chorus full of beautiful altissimo work… so, here’s a sketch of “Since You Asked” along with a transcription of Lovano’s blowing. once again, the changes? i think they’re pretty close but i’ll leave you make the call…
“Nardis” by Bill Evans is one of my favorite compositions. i love the way the chords move, as well as the feeling the melody evokes. i thought it would be interesting to do the same thing i did on a 
With its powerful three horn front line and a several great composer/ improvisors, the configuration of the Jazz Messengers featured on the record 
I received a request from a friend here in tokyo for a transcription of Hancock’s song “Oliloqui Valley”, which comes from the his record, EMPYREAN ISLES. it features many of the same personnel from his more well known date, MAIDEN VOYAGE (Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter). this is a great recording that features what seem to be general sketches that the musicians are able to expand upon. it’s an excellent example of the post bop attitude- musicians who were willing and able to reference traditional styles as well as work at the boundaries of free playing with confidence and authority. what i love most about this record is how relaxed and assured it sounds… “Oliloqui Valley” is built off of a vamping bassline under a piano figure and a simple four note melody by Hubbard. the song then moves into a short improvised passage. the whole passage is repeated before it moves into the blowing section. the chords are related by color more than anything else. Hancock plays a great solo, the right hand of which is transcribed below…
Powell, along with Thelonius Monk was the most influential pianist to came out of the Bebop period of the 40’s and 50’s. he was the catalyst of a significant change in the way pianists approached the instrument. though well versed in the styles of his predecessors, his unique take on improvisation was characterized by long, chromatic, mostly linear right hand lines, balanced by a sparse, syncopated left hand accompaniment full of harmonic variation. his approach was similar to that of a horn player. i took a couple of solos off of a compilation CD called “
It’s amazing to think that even in a community as small as that of jazz, there are so many musicians to discover and listen to. pianist Hod O’Brien is a musician i came across by accident. a friend of my wife, whose father was an avid record collector that had recently passed away, allowed me access to his many CDs. his first love seemed to be trio recordings so i was lucky enough to come away with great recordings by Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Cedar Walton, Ray Bryant, Gene Harris, Mulgrew Miller, John Hicks, Junior Mance, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Drew, Hal Galper, Mal Waldron, Richie Beirach, etc. i happened upon O’Brien’s disc 
Bobby Hutcherson’s 
Doing transcriptions for PRACTICE PORTAL has been a blast. when i was younger, i used to transcribe a lot; for ear training, to cop ideas, to gather material for creating exercises, etc. as i matured and started working more, i left transcribing behind for several years. my rationalization was that i needed to spend more time finding my own voice. i continued listening but i didn’t bother to take down solos. although it is good to try to soak things in by osmosis, i am again realizing how useful it is to have transcribed solos on hand, whether it’s for use as practice fodder or as a reference to compare and contrast different styles, players, compositions, etc. though i still feel strongly that musicians- any musician, but especially improvising musicians- are better served by learning music aurally, through memorization and repetition, having written material still is of great use. setting two or more solos side by side for analysis is much easier when done aurally and visually… i’ve been kicking around the idea of doing more posts that compare soloists as they improvise over the same song. my recent post of “Grand Central” featuring Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane is a good example of what i mean. i’d like to take that concept and apply it to soloists on different recordings and perhaps even from different stylistic eras. as soon as i find some good material, i’ll get to work… which brings me to…
“Cain & Able” is a song from Branford Marsalis’ record, 
fine strands of silk being woven into an intricate fabric. Monk also uses rhythm to great advantage by expanding and contracting the flow of his melodies and progressions with metric modulation, and employing syncopation to build rhythmic tension. what’s so great about his work is that he seems unafraid of allowing ugliness and abrasion to stand side by side with beauty and tenderness, as they do in the real world. there are few artist in any discipline who are able to pull that off with as much honesty as Monk did. Bartok? Coltrane? Picasso? Schoenberg? Armstrong? perhaps that’s the source of his music’s staying power… if you believe, as i do, that technique is not an end, but a means to a fuller expression, then Monk deserves the title of Piano Master. to my ear Monk’s interpretations on this two CD set are complete, self-contained statements that project a sort of brutal elegance which brings to mind the best of jazz. my only point of contention with this recording is that there isn’t enough of Monk’s own music represented. his numerous compositions are as much American standards as “Body And Soul”, “Memories Of You”, etc. still, this recording is a must have for anyone interested in a closer look at Monk’s take on music.
A few months back i had a conversation with a friend of mine and we started discussing Hip Hop music. we talked about our favorite records and MCs, and he mentioned that he was transcribing some verses to check out what different MCs were doing rhythmically. doing something like that had never occurred to me but after our conversation, the idea really grew on me. the guys i immediately thought about transcribing were Pharoahe Monch and Prince Poetry, formerly known as ORGANIZED KONFUSION. the NYC duo released three records during the 90s that were largely slept on perhaps due to their complex rhyme styles and underground aesthetic. they weren’t (at that time) traditional, 16 bar and out rappers. they were “abstract”, ever evolving and different from other crews (which was, at that time, a badge of honor). both MCs are pretty incredible but Monch stands out as the mad genius of the group. he has a great voice, an incredible flow, creative wordplay and, what appeals to me most, a variety of complex rhythmic patterns that he uses at will… the late 80s to mid 90s were a really creative time for Hip Hop. song tempos were faster, geared more toward a dancing audience, grooves were rhythmically more intricate, and MCs pushed the creative envelope and strove toward creating unique styles. MCs and crews like Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics, Native Tongues, Kool G Rap, Big L, Hobo Junction, Brand Nubian, Nas, KMD, Leaders Of The New School, Poor Righteous Teachers, Black Moon, Latyrx, X-Clan, CL Smooth, Public Enemy, Guru, Digable Planets, Camp Lo, Divine Styler, etc., influenced by MCs who laid down the prototype of the New School MC (Rakim, KRS One, Ultramagnetic MCs, Big Daddy Kane, MC Lyte, Percee P, etc.), raised the lyrical and musical bar. many of the artists mentioned above took a huge shot to the gut with the onset of so-called Gansta Rap. Hip Hop’s most creative elements were supressed in favor of a slower, more static beat, simpler rhyme styles, and a much narrower range of subject matter. Organized Konfusion was one group that fell by the wayside as the hypercommercialization of Hip Hop went into high gear. hopefully, as recession hit, cubic zirconia wearing rap dudes realize that rhyming about bank rolls is no longer in fashion, and that they have nothing to lose, as record labels aren’t spending money, even on commercial acts, they will start to embrace creativity and individuality in Hip Hop again. “The Extinction Agenda” is a track from OK’s sophmore effort, 
I’m currently reading a book called 
One of the many unsung heroes in jazz, the story of Nichols’ life is by now familiar to most so i won’t dwell on that. instead, i’ll focus on his compositions which are some of the more unique and challenging in jazz (and have great titles). his music references a number of styles: older piano players, bebop, European classical music, Caribbean music, Tin Pan Alley, etc. Nichols as a player utilizes the entire span of his instrument and anchors a quick, flowery right hand with a heavy, bomb dropping left that is reminiscent of Horace Silver at times. he swings hard! his emotional range is broad. he can move from dark, heavy themes to an unabashed, kitschy brilliance in the space of a single phrase. angular, complex lines at one moment, followed by gentle cocktail piano ticklings, block chording, stride piano- he runs the whole stylistic gamut with a flair and aggressive confidence that is infectious. the main obstacle standing in the way of taking down Nichols’ songs is trying to figure out what’s going on harmonically. i considered completely foregoing the progressions because they are very ambiguous; Nichols (and the bassists) tends to play a lot roots and fifths with no thirds or sevenths which makes classifying the chords difficult. instead, i wrote out a very general harmonic road map, mostly just the roots and sometimes, if i’m fairly sure, the chord quality. i strongly recommend that you listen to the recordings and draw your own conclusions. i chose six songs to post: “CRISP DAY“, “IT DIDN’T HAPPEN“, “TERPSICORE“, “THE GIG“, “THE THIRD WORLD” and “CRO-MAGNON NIGHTS“. they come from a fantastic three CD compilation called 
I first heard 
had enough time to pick my jaw up off the floor when this OTHER guy comes in on tenor. while Adderley was playing a more or less conventional bop line, Coltrane was playing this other stuff, dealing with the harmonic material he was exploring on records like GIANTS STEPS and COLTRANE JAZZ. while Adderley blew over an F7 chord during the first four bars of his solo, Coltrane superimposed a high resolution harmonic sequence over those same four measures that eventually resolved to the next chord in the progression proper, D7. you could say that Adderley operated on the molecular level while Coltrane worked on a more rareified, atomic level. two very different sounds and approaches, set against each other, and on top of the fine rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (who is consistently incredible and funky), Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers, all of whom were members of the great Miles Davis Quintet at the time. this 
record was so eye opening to me. it really showed me how varied and personal improvisational styles could be. Adderley’s 8th note has a pronounced lope. he really digs into the beat with a very extroverted and jubilant swing. even on a song like “Grand Central”, which is in a minor key, and has a heavy feeling to it, the energy of his sound is very bright and (for lack of a better word) “happy”. Coltrane’s 8th note, on the other hand, is flatter and more streamlined. he often employs sweeping scalar runs and arpeggios that soar high above the rhythm section and move out of the regular 8th note pulse. he makes use of whole tone and harmonic minor scales that add a mysterious, almost atonal quality to his lines. his sound is at once an urgent wail, a cry or a roar. being an alto player and a jazz neophyte at the time, i naturally gravitated to Adderley, whose style was less cryptic than Coltrane’s. everything about the way Cannonball played appealed to me. he was a really well studied, hip, soulful sax player. Cannonball Adderley came off to me as a musician who found his groove pretty early in life and was content to remain there- now, don’t get me wrong, i don’t think there is anything wrong with that because he was an excellent player who could hold his own next to anyone (he was in the baddest band in the land when he made this recording fer chrissakes!) but Coltrane was different. i got the feeling that he was and would never be satisfied, that he was always trying to move forward. i started to revere Coltrane as i got deeper into music and started to understand what he was dealing with, and began to understand why he profoundly influenced so many, not only as a musician, but as a man trying to find something, attempting to transcend…
I bought a copy of Mark Turner’s eponymous CD a few months back and before long, i had his version of “327 East 32nd Street” on repeat. as a saxophonist i, am always amazed by the facility of Turner (and Joshua Redman, who also plays on this tune). there is a passage from the 20th measure of the song that moves into the altissimo register of the tenor sax and is really difficult to make sing. Turner pulls it off like he’s playing in the comfortable middle register. although they are not the first to play with fluidity in the extreme registers, guys like Turner and Redman, Joe Lovano and others have set new technical standards for contemporary saxophonists. those high G’s and A’s are no longer only used as “devices”. by that i mean they are no longer just the domain of honkers and screechers (not a diss). what i’m trying to say is that these notes are more often being seemlessly incorporated into the melodic line as opposed to serving only as emotional exclamation points. Turner is a pretty scary saxophonist, a very unique voice among the younger generation of musicians. i first heard his work on 
“Bossa De Luxe” is a song off of a record called 
after the extended intro vamp and a fanfare like section, the melody proper begins. the A section is 8 bars and is followed by an 8 bar B section. the song then returns to the fanfare section followed by blowing over A and B. the thing that defines this song, however, is the unique harmonic vision of Tyner. in his hands, any piece of music can become much more than ever can be written on a piece of paper. i enjoy listening to the opening vamp which becomes a song in itself. Tyner takes the static harmony and mines it for the hidden gems it contains… check out the lead sheets below. many thanks go out to Alan in Tokyo for the CDs!
What do you get when you throw together: fat sound, phenomenal technique, cleanly articulated lines, hardswinging 8th notes, humor, musicality and inventive melodies? you might come up with something like Christian McBride’s solo on “I’m An Old Cowhand”. the transcription below is from a date led by Billy Pierce called 
It’s been a while since i lasted posted any music. i took a nice vacation with the family and thought about nothing but putting back a few beers and eating mom and dad’s home cooking. while i was gone i got a couple of requests for lead sheets.
Wayne Shorter is arguably the most influential composer in modern jazz. his conception played a huge part in shaping the sound of the Miles Davis quintet of the 60’s. listening to his classic recording dates on Blue Note, we get a glimpse of his unique take on composition and improvisation. his music of that period, like his improvisations seem to be an intense refinement of things he’d learned from his influences. everything feels essential and inevitable, nothing seems wasted. like many of his songs, Shorter’s “DANCE CADAVEROUS”, which comes from his seminal recording, 
in his conception that links him to the honkers and the shouters, gospel music and r+b. it’s the same thing I hear in guys like Oliver Lake and Aurthur Blythe. there’s a gutbucket sensibility bubbling just underneath his lines. it gives even his most oblique statements a very rooted blues feeling. his biting sound has a vocal, human quality to it. it’s very emotional and unabashed. just listen to him on “Croquet Ballet” when he takes the melody from the trumpet and flute halfway through. he just sings. even when he’s playing background lines (check him out behind Morgan’s melody on “Capra Black”) the leading edge of his sound surges through everything else. “Croquet Ballet” is waltz that moves back and forth between swing and Afro Cuban feels. the Afro Cuban sections are really loose and danceable. “Capra Black” starts with a huge, dark fanfare by the horns, and then into the melody, played by Morgan. the band is pretty big, at times featuring two bass players and four horns, horn doubles and occasional percussion. the song is a definite nod harmonically in the direction of Shorter. it reminds me of a caravan slowly moving through a vast desert. the droning bass figures evokes images of ancient civilizations. i let the mp3 clips run long so you can hear some of Harper’s solos. he’s a very talented composer and saxophonist that more people should be aware of…
“Straight Ahead” is the title song from an album by 
Waldron
MIRROR MIRROR
although MIRROR MIRROR isn’t usually considered among the strongest material by Joe Henderson, the song “Keystone” is pretty incredible and the CD is well worth the price on the strength of it alone. it’s a 24 bar blues head with a repeating riff, played by Henderson and Corea, that is answered by Carter and Higgins. the song is straightforward and the solos are great but the really fantastic thing about this piece is the dynamic interaction between the drums and the bass. Carter maintains a two feel throughout the blowing, playing very melodically and functioning kind of like a second soloist (and playing great lines), while Higgins plays with a lively, very danceable four feel. this creates a rhythmic dissonance that a listener assumes will be resolved by the bass eventually walking a four feel. but Carter never does. Higgins, for his part, implies a regular ride pattern and constantly peppers his rhythms with fills on the toms and snare. the feel is pulled in two directions at once, the result being a friction that permeates the improvisations. i imagine a kite flying in a stiff wind; Carter’s earthy, funky groove is like a tether that keeps Higgins’ darting, jabbing rhythm from floating off into the atmosphere. i let the mp3 clip run past the melody a bit to give you a little taste. great music. check ‘em out below…
If a tree falls in the forest but no one’s there to hear it… It’s really great to hear from folks who’ve taken a look at PRACTICE PORTAL. i post transcriptions and other stuff for myself as much as for anyone else. it’s a form of self-motivation, it keeps me focused on practicing and learning new things about music. still, receiving feedback from other people is a definite shot in the arm. i really appreciate any comments, good, bad and ugly, about the site. let me know what you want to see more or less of and i’ll see what i can do about it. With that said, many thanks go out to TJ for adding a link to PRACTICE PORTAL at 
As the U.S. and the world awaits the new stimulus package from Obama and the legislature, i thought i would consult the wisdom of another head of state to see what he had to say. Lester Young’s thoughts might not do much for the economy but they will most definitely stimulate the mind of anyone who cares to listen. these three sides are all variations on rhythm changes, and on them, Young displays his control, finesse, incredible rhythmic sense and that SOUND. each of these sides feature an overt, bouncing beat with a really prominent 4 feel. it’s too bad that jazz isn’t much considered as dance music anymore. playing for dancers profoundly effects how a band and a soloist feels the beat, and seeing music expressed physically in dance, its artistic sibling, is a sensation that musicians should endeavor to experience as often as possible. the musicians on these sides: Count Basie, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Freddie Green and Dickie Wells, to name a few, collaborate towards evoking an infectious and elegant swing.
To say that Lennie Tristano was a uniquely talented musician is to some, stating the obvious. but perhaps it isn’t. his isn’t exactly a household name, even among musicians. and many who do know of him are only familiar with his extra-musical reputation as an enigmatic and reclusive person. his influence on a wide range of musicians, even if unacknowledged, is quite strong. not only was he an educator with an ever-growing following of talented musicians, most notably, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, he ran his own record label (he was one of the first musicians to do so) and was a pioneer in the application of tape splicing, multi-tracking and other editing techniques (gasp!). he was also a forward thinking conceptualist, no doubt planting a few of the seeds that gave birth to the free jazz phenomenon, and of course he was flat out an amazing improvisor as evinced by the transcription below.
Booker Little’s date, 
featuring Roach on tympami. Little and Dolphy play a second line which is again followed by the other musicians. after a brief cadenza, played by Little over the same progression as above, the main melody begins in 5/4 time. the first four bars of the progression look like this:
with the inner voice either a fourth or a tritone away from the bottom voice. the bottom horn voice is then positioned a minor 7th above the bass voice. depending on the placement of the middle horn, Little gets a nice, open dominant or minor thirteenth sound. with the next phrase, Little crunches the horns together into tight clusters over a Db in the bass. the first cluster is Eb, E, Ab. the second is an A major triad in first inversion. following that, the first cluster is transposed up a fourth: Ab, A, Db. the final cluster is G, Bb, F#. the phrase is then ended with two min (maj7) chords. notating the fourth chord in this sequence is a little iffy. my guess is this:
My method of gathering material for these posts has been pretty haphazard. often, while i’m transcribing a solo, another version of the song i’m listening to will come to mind. such was the case when i was transcribing Eddie Harris’ solo from “Love For Sale” for the last post. i started hearing pieces of a Joe Henderson solo from Grant Green’s record, 
I first had a chance to hear Eddie Harris while i was living in California in the early nineties. back then, i often played at a spot named Jazz Etc. which was situated around Leimert Park, an area in South Central L.A. with a rich music and arts scene. while i was backstage, i was introduced to Mr. Harris who promptly asked me what my sign is. when i told him, he started into a short monologue covering astrology, the planets, etc. i had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and wasn’t sure if he was just putting me on or if he was really serious because the whole time he talked to me, he had a this far away, knowing smile on his face. later that night, he got up to do a song but instead of playing horn, he did a scat solo. maybe scat isn’t quite the right word for what he did; it sounded somewhat like yodeling. at times, similar to things i’ve heard by the great vocalist Dwight Tribble, and to what Leon Thomas did on Pharoah Sander’s Karma, on the song, “The Creator Has A Master Plan”. the sounds that came from him were incredible. wild arpeggios and interval leaps set against the backdrop of a familiar song (i don’t remember what it was, probably a standard or a blues). the crowd, mainly an older audience of serious blues fans, loved it. i loved it too, kind of like how i love a rollercoaster ride- after i’m safely back on the ground. it was really bluesy but very out there. i didn’t know what to think at the time. a lot of what he was doing went right over my head, but i was fascinated and curious. i had heard some of his music prior to that. my dad had the record he did with Les McCann called Swiss Movement that featured the songs, “Compared To What” and “Cold Duck Time”. and of course i was familiar with “Freedom Jazz Dance” (his version and the Miles Davis version). i also remember another record my dad had called The Best Of Eddie Harris. anyway, shortly after that experience i bought a book that he wrote called 
albums. both recordings feature the incredible rhythm section of Cedar Walton on piano, Ron Carter on bass and the one and only Billy Higgins on drums. in addition, a really nice trumpeter named Ray Codrington shares the front line with Harris on many of the tracks. when i heard Harris’ solo on “Love For Sale”, the previous experiences mentioned above made a little more sense to me. i love this solo! of course there’s all those quartal patterns that are pretty amazing given the tempo of the song, but what i love most is his sound and how he hits those fat high notes and will drop a really bluesy line into the mix from time to time to let listeners know where it’s all coming from… there’s so much to Eddie Harris. he was a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, lyricist, comedian, author and a pioneer, among other things. there’s more to him than i can possibly touch on here. anyone who’s interested in knowing more about him should go to 
Every jazz musician has a favorite Horace Silver song. for some, it’s a bop head like “No Smoking”, “Room 608″ or “Nutville”. others like his more overtly Caribbean flavored songs like “Que Pasa”, “Cape Verdean Blues” and “Nica’s Dream”. then you have the mid tempo foot tappers like “Strollin’” and “Sister Sadie”. i, for one, have always dug his ballads. “Peace” is a favorite of mine. there’s also “Shirl”, a ballad he featured on 
a cycle of ii-Vs descending chromatically. finally, there’s a short suspended chord with a moving line in the bass voice, then a restating of the original melody. Horace Silver’s piano solo is buoyant and energetic. juxtaposed against the dark, brooding progression he sounds as if he’s trying to keep the faith, to stay optimistic during a troubled time. like he’s tryng to draw something else out of the progression, throw light on the progression from a different angle. but then the improvisation abruptly moves back to the melody, almost stumbling over itself. trying to read into an artist’s intentions is not something i want to do too much of on this blog, but it’s an amusing way to take up a little space… let’s just say this, it’s a really great piece of music that i can listen to many times over. i’ll call what i did below a “sketch” because i wasn’t able to pick out all the notes in the harmonies that Silver plays. but i did write out the shell of the piece and filled in chord tones as i could hear them. the way i wrote the tune formally- where i put the time signature change- is my best guess at what “Shirl” might look like on paper. oh yeah- when you get a chance, check out Horace Silver’s autobiography, 
Mulgrew Miller is a pianist that every one should be aware of. but he’s one of those guys that musicians speak about with an air of reverence while general jazz listeners , who may know the name, can’t quite place the face. he’s a “musician’s musician”, a double-edged compliment reserved for guys who don’t get the attention and accolades they deserve. for quite a while now, Miller has been one of the most in demand pianists on the scene due in large part to his wide palette of harmonic shades and a highly personal melodic vocabulary. i first became aware of his playing from listening to a cd called 
elliptical patterns while his left hand evokes a harmonic mood that moves quickly between earthy and ethereal. i no longer have a copy of that record but i do have many others including With Our Own Eyes, Time and Again, The Countdown and 