Author: Seth Ahnert

Dave Samuels honors Jobim

Vibraphonist Dave Samuels and saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera wrote the tune “One For Tom” in honor of Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim. It was first recorded by their group the Caribbean Jazz Project on the 1995 album of the same name.

In 2009 Samuels was guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz where he performed the tune as a duo with pianist Alain Mallet. After the performance, Samuels and McPartland discuss Jobim’s music and Samuels hits on something that has always intrigued me about Jobim’s music:

It’s funny, you listen to these beautiful melodies and at first glance it seems like, ‘oh, this is really a beautiful tune with a great feel and boy, these changes are really—these are going to be easy changes to play over.’ And then as you start playing it you realize in order to thread the needle to get through the changes is so specific and so delicate that it’s deceptively difficult. Because when you first play the tune it sounds—oh, nothing to it. And then you start playing over it and it really—it’s almost like he’s created the perfect melody for these changes and everything else other than that melody doesn’t really sound that great. That’s my take on his writing”

There is a bit of hyperbole in the idea that anything apart from the melody will not sound good. Certainly many artists have explored Jobim’s music in artistic and tasteful ways. But I think the “threading the needle” imagery is apt. I have found it takes care and attention to detail to play Jobim’s tunes in the first place, and to improvise over the changes even more so. When it works, it’s a delight.

With “One For Tom” Samuels/D’Rivera captured that same essence of Jobim’s writing. As Marian McPartland remarks after hearing it performed, “Wherever Tom is he would love that tune.”

 

Joshua Redman Ending on On The Sunny Side Of The Street

Joshua Redman and Christian McBride play this ending on the tune “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” from Redman’s self-titled 1993 debut album.

Joshua Redman and Christian McBride on “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” (concert pitch)

Bars 1 and 2 have clear elements of the common bebop language:

  • syncopated rhythm with a pickup beat
  • eighth note lines that outline the harmony
  • chromatic passing tones and enclosures that lead to harmonic tones on strong beats

The second half (starting with the C on bar 3) quotes the classic Strayhorn/Ellington ending on “Take The “A” Train” (originally recorded in 1941)

The final bit of vocabulary (beat 3 on bar 4) I first heard on the tune “Four” from Miles Davis’ Blue Haze (1954). I don’t know for sure whether that is the earliest recorded use of the phrase, but I’ve heard it used often. I particularly like the surprise harmonic substitution by the bass moving down a tritone from C to F#.

 

Listening
  • Joshua Redman, “On The Sunny Side Of The Street,” Joshua Redman, 1993
  • Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, “Take The “A” Train,” Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band, 1941
  • Miles Davis, “Four,” Blue Haze, 1954

Ascending Fourth on Jordu

Duke Jordan’s “Jordu” (or Jor-du) is an excellent tune for memorizing the sound of the ascending perfect fourth interval. The first three phrases of the A section all start with the same perfect fourth, so if you listen to the entire head (AABA) you will hear it nine times.

Here is the first phrase:

Listening
  • Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Clifford Brown & Max Roach, 1954
  • Duke Jordan, Flight To Denmark, 1974
  • Mulgrew Miller, Solo, 2010

The Forest For The Trees

Today I realized that the way I want to experience music is the way my 12-year old self was learning and experiencing music before the idea was educated out of me.

To begin, let me say I totally value all of the musical education I have received in my life. I would not subtract any aspect of my private tuition or higher ed training.

I do wish that somehow through it all I would have retained the larger view of what it means to make music. To me the larger view is this: my job is to pay attention to how music affects me, and somehow find a way to share that with others.

I remember a specific practice session with my bandmates in 7th grade where I passionately implored them to take inspiration from a specific recording (Spacehog, if you must know) and use the techniques in our own compositions. I was so excited by what I heard, I wanted to be able to capture that feeling and share it.

I don’t remember whether my suggestions carried any weight, but today—20 years later—I had a flashback to that moment as I felt the excitement of really listening to something great (Brad Mehldau) and wanting to capture some essence of the music and share it with an audience.

Somehow in my long journey through music history, study of repertoire, and music theory (Victor Wooten says “it should be called note theory, not music theory, because it doesn’t teach you Music!”), I forgot this basic impulse.

Or maybe not forgot. On reflection, I do recall several occasions as a student that I let inspiration guide me to share charts and arrangements with others in rehearsal and performance. And certainly my capstone performances for my degrees were reflections of my own musical preferences.

But I do remember the feeling, after a few years of higher-ed music training, that I was missing out on something great that my middle-school self used to know.

Today I realized I was missing the music forest for the music theory trees.

As I said before, I have no complaint about the education I did receive, only gratitude for this awareness, and an eagerness to guide future students to the canopy for the view.

Oscar Peterson Intro on The Nearness of You

Today’s intro comes from the classic album Ella and Louis (1956). The rhythm section on the album is Oscar Peterson’s quartet from that era with Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar, and Buddy Rich on drums.

When I think of Oscar, I often think of his astonishing technique or his bluesy vocabulary. This intro showcases another of his strengths: deep swinging lyricism.

I love that you can hear his foot tapping out the quarter note as he plays. The quiet quarter note pulse set against Peterson’s triplet syncopation makes this a textbook example of a medium-slow swing feel.

Oscar Peterson Intro on The Nearness Of You

Vince Guaraldi’s Intro to “Softly as In A Morning Sunrise”

Guaraldi Intro to Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise

Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise by Sigmund Romberg is a jazz standard commonly played in C minor.

The Vince Guaraldi Trio offers up this tidy intro on the album A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing from 1957.

This would work well as an intro to almost any minor tune with a similar groove, and could also be used as an ending (on the recording there is a studio fade, so we don’t know if this group used it).

 

Christmas Music I Like

Taking inspiration from Austin Kleon’s “Books I Like” page,  here’s a list of Christmas music you would listen to in 2015, if you were me.

“Santa Clause is Coming To Town” by Bill Evans

The quintessential jazz pianist interprets this classic Christmas tune in his characteristic style

Santa Clause Is Coming To Town – Trio 64 (1964)

“Greensleeves” by Coleman Hawkins

Greensleeves (or, What Child Is This) as interpreted by one of the finest tenor saxophone masters.

Greensleeves – Soul (1958)

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

A swinging version of this tune by another tenor master.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Gotham City (1981)

“Christmas Waltz” by Dianne Reeves

A brilliant collection of contemporary jazz musicians create a reggae-inspired groove on this Christmas classic.

Christmas Waltz – Christmas Time Is Here (2004)

“The Nutcracker Suite” by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

A wonderfully reimagined arrangement of pieces from Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet. It can be difficult to find the original album, so you can find it as the first nine tracks on the album Three Suites.

The Nutcracker Suite (1960) – Three Suites

“Jingle Bells (Bonus Track)” by Diana Krall

I originally heard this as a bonus track on Diana Krall’s Christmas Songs (2005). The fully orchestrated version of jingle bells with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra is great too, but Krall’s solo piano/vocal version can’t be beat.

Jingle Bells

“Snowfall” by Claude Thornhill

This tune is often performed with lyrics (written by Ruth Thornhill). This is the original instrumental version.

Snowfall – Snowfall Vol. 1

“Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” by the Classical Jazz Quartet

An interesting premise, to take timeless “classical” compositions and interpret them in a jazz style. The artistry here is phenomenal and Bach’s “Jesu…” is a marvelous vehicle.

Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring – Christmas

Matt Wilsons Christmas Tree-o

Instead of picking an individual track, just listen to the full album. Warning: you’ll burn your ears off!

Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O (2010)

Mulgrew Miller on listening deeply

“The greatest musicians are the greatest listeners”

I recently listened to the 2002 interview with Mulgrew Miller on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. The entire show is worth a listen, but one anecdote stuck out to me about the importance of listening deeply.

About halfway through the show, Marian asks about Mulgrew’s private teaching practice and what he tells students in a private lesson. Mulgrew replies:

I tell them I think the most important thing to their development is to learn how to listen.

It turns out that Mulgrew had to learn this lesson the hard way on the bandstand. He recounts a learning experience he had playing the tune Four on a gig with Clifford Jordan:

After I cam to New York, I was on a gig once and I was playing the tune Four. This was with one of the veteran musicians in New York, Clifford Jordan.

I was playing some changes that I had learned from a fake book, and they were not the original changes. Although I had been listening to recordings of Miles playing Four and they were playing the original changes, I just didn’t listen beyond what was on the surface, you know?

Clifford came over to me that night and said, “you know you’re playing the wrong changes on Four”

I said “really?”

And he said “yeah, they’re this…” and he showed me.

I said “wow, that’s amazing. I’ve been listening to that record for years and I hadn’t noticed that.”

I went back home and I put the record on, and there it was, as plain as day, the changes that he was showing me.

What I learned from that is that I had not been listening deep enough—in enough detail—to get all the proper things.

This anecdote has inspired me to increase the amount of practice time that I spend with recordings. To me, listening deeply can mean literally transcribing melodies or harmonies I hear. It can also mean trying to feel the groove on a deep level, or hear specific phrasing or dynamics. Sometimes I will put a record on and simply play along with it, beginning to end. Each time I do, I find that I hear something in a new way, and get inspired to go even deeper.

 

Transcribing the Slow Way

I recently started a new transcription project with the goal of learning as slow as possible. Well, not really—but in appreciation of the idea that “the fastest way is the slowest way,” I’m in no rush to finish the project.

The project began the way many of my transcriptions do: I was listening to music that I’ve heard many times before, but this time I heard it in a new way and was intrigued. The transcription is Herbie Hancock’s solo from “Oliloqui Valley” Empyrean Isles (1964).

“Empyrean Isles” by Herbie Hancock. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

I was actually playing along on drums and trying to match Tony Williams’ feel when something from Herbie’s solo caught my ear. I ran to the piano to figure out a few notes and then hastily wrote “Oliloqui Valley” on the whiteboard to remember to come back to this solo.

When I came back days later to work on the solo, I decided to take it phrase by phrase and really try to digest each bit before moving on. As I go, here are some questions I’m thinking about:

  • can I sing the phrase or pattern?
  • do I understand the rhythm and can I apply the rhythm elsewhere?
  • do I understand the intervals and their sounds?
  • how does the melodic phrase relate to the harmony?
  • how does the melodic phrase work with other harmonies?
  • how does the phrase relate to what comes before/after?
  • etc.

For me, a phrase might be four measures, or it might be just a few notes, there are no additional parameters beyond “go slowly.”

This takes more time than just playing (or writing) the notes, but I’m convinced that I am learning the language more thoroughly than if I were rushing to get to the end.