Tag: Bass

March 31, 2018

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

February 4, 2016

Vince Guaraldi’s 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).

May 1, 2015

Oscar Peterson Ending on Night Train

We’re starting a new series here at TheJazzLanguage.com: Intros & Endings. Up until now, the majority of the posts have been solo transcriptions that represent the language of jazz improvisation.

Another important characteristic of the jazz language is the way tunes are arranged. Listening for how artists begin and end their arrangements gives you a sense for how their musical vocabulary relates to the broader jazz idiom.

To begin the series, here is the ending Oscar Peterson’s Trio plays on Night Train from the album of the same name.

You may recognize this as the “Count Basie Ending” featured on classic Basie band tunes like Splanky and Broadway.

For Oscar Peterson’s version, the sound is created by the combination of Ray Brown’s bass in the low end and Peterson’s two-note voicings in the upper range of the piano.

This sound is a great contrast to the “typical” Basie ending that is played solely by the piano and represents the complementary relationship between the bass and piano in this trio.

Using The sound

To apply this in your own arrangements, pay attention to the relationships between the notes played and the key of the tune.

In this case, the tune night train is in the key of G major, and you’ll notice that the bass in playing G in three different octaves.

The essence of the piano part is the top line that starts on C (a fourth above G) and moves up by half steps to C#, then D. Combined with the bass part, this has the effect of providing tension-resolution to the home key of G.

The lower note of the piano part, an E, fills out the harmony. Combined with the upper note, it implies the chords C major, C# diminished, and G major 6, respectively.

December 17, 2014

Descending Bass Line Intro

Listening to a playlist of Christmas music, I heard a bass line that I knew I had heard before in a different context. The line uses a descending “major bebop” scale which is essentially a major scale with an added half-step between the fifth and sixth scale degrees.

As a bass line, playing this scale in a descending pattern over the span of two octaves can fill four bars of 4/4 time and makes for a nice intro.

This first example is played by John Clayton on Diana Krall’s Christmas Songs album on the tune “Winter Wonderland.”

The second example is played by Sam Jones and is used not as the actual intro but as the first four bars of the head on “Sleepin’ Bee” from the album Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley (1961).

Here is the transcription of both lines. I have boxed the scale degrees that are essentially the same in both lines. Jones and Clayton each embellish and end the line slightly differently, but the primary pattern is quite effective and recognizable.