PRACTICE PORTAL

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…

CEDAR WALTON- “MOSAIC” (mp3)

LEAD SHEET- “MOSAIC” (pdf)

I’m adding chord progressions to the transcriptions that i’ve posted and am making revised PDFs where i’ve found mistakes. so far i’ve added progressions to Cedar Walton’s and Mulgrew Miller’s “Hindsight” and Lennie Tristano’s “Line Up”.  i’ve made some corrections to “Line Up” and to Booker Little’s “Hazy Hues”…

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…

EDDIE HARRIS- “LOVE FOR SALE” (mp3)

SOLO TRANSCRIPTION OF “LOVE FOR SALE” (pdf)

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 Composer which 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- “HINDSIGHT” (mp3)

SOLO TRANSCRIPTION OF “HINDSIGHT” (pdf)

CEDAR WALTON- “HINDSIGHT” (mp3)

SOLO TRANSCRIPTION OF “HINDSIGHT” (pdf)