Tag: Piano

March 4, 2015

Bill Evans’ Bridge on Oleo

The bridge section of the musical form known as “rhythm changes” is a perennial improvisatory playground. The harmony commonly follows a cycle of dominant chords, each resolving down a fifth (or up a fourth), and the tension created by this progression provides fertile ground for melodic inventions.

This week we will look at the the way Bill Evans uses harmony and rhythm to create a unique statement on the bridge of Sonny Rollins’ tune “Oleo.” (This recording is on the album Everybody Dig’s Bill Evans (1958) featuring Sam Jones on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums).

Harmony

In a typical Bb rhythm changes tune, the bridge begins on D7 and continues to G7, C7, and F7 before resolving back to Bb. Evans takes advantage of the nature of the whole-tone scale and tritone substitution to complete this cycle using a descending half-step motion.

I’ve chosen to analyze the first chord as Ab9(#5) to highlight the descending nature of this pattern. You could also think of this as D9 with a raised fourth and fifth. I tend to think of the entire whole-tone scale that fits both interpretations.

Once you are comfortable with the sound and feel of the harmony, it’s time to move on to the…

Rhythm

The hallmark of developed rhythmic improvisors is the ability to freely cross the estabilished bar lines and still create a musically complete phrase. Bill Evans uses a common technique here that can be understood as a repeated three-beat phrase over several bars of 4/4 time.

Tap this pattern with the left and right hands. Use a metronome or count to keep your place in the 4/4 measure. The first eighth note in parentheses is not actually played by Evans, but is useful here to see the pattern.

The brackets identify the three-beat riff and you can see that it takes three full measures of 4/4 before the pattern begins again on beat one. Evans adds additional rhythmic material for variety, but begins another three-beat phrase in bar 5.

Make sure you can feel these rhythms between the hands before you continue.

Putting It All Together

Here is the complete pattern that Bill Evans plays on the bridge to Oleo. Note that if you learned the rhythm above, the right hand is now split between the higher cluster of two notes and the lower single note.

After listening again, there are several places where the left hand lays out in the recording. I’m leaving them notated here for the ease of practicing the rhythmic pattern.

The moral of this story: never underestimate the power of rhythm in creating unique and exciting musical statements.

January 27, 2015

Wynton Kelly on Freddie Freeloader

If you are not already familiar with the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, do yourself a favor and go listen right now. As one of the most popular and best-selling jazz albums of all time—it went quadruple platinum in 2008—any jazz fan should at least be aware of this great work.

For this Transcription Tuesday, I chose to focus on the first chorus of the piano solo on Freddie Freeloader. While Bill Evans is the pianist for most of the album, this track features the great Wynton Kelly instead.

I love Kelly’s touch and bouncy time feel, as well as his melodic blues-based language. Pay attention to the way he uses chord tones as arrival points for the melody.

One of my favorite parts of this chorus is the final two bars. The form is generally based on a 12-bar blues in Bb, with an unusual Ab7 chord in bars 11 and 12. Kelly arpeggiates a Bb major triad over the Ab7 harmony creating a wonderful polychordal sound that can by described as Ab13#11. Once you wrap your ears around how this chord works, you will begin hearing it in countless other tunes that have been recorded since.

July 22, 2014

Transcription Tuesday: Sonny Clark on “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” (part 1)

“Sonny Clark Trio” by AMG. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

In honor of Sonny Clark’s birthday yesterday, here is a partial transcription of his solo on “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” from the album Sonny Clark Trio. The album is Clark’s first trio album and features Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

I find it particularly interesting to hear which phrases and sounds Clark tends to repeat. Compare for example the

beginning of the the double-time run in measure 2 with the end of the bridge in measure 24. While the notes are the same, the pattern is now played at half the speed to fit in with the 8th-note groove rather than the double-time feel.

This pattern occurs many more times throughout the recording, so take a listen and add it to your own vocabulary!

July 15, 2014

Transcription Tuesday: Joe Zawinul on Unit 7

I first heard Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley several years ago while searching for great arrangements for a jazz quintet plus vocalist. At the time, I was focused on the first half of the album that features Nancy Wilson and didn’t pay much attention to the final five instrumental tracks.

I’m happy to say that I’m in the process of rectifying this oversight and the first tune I am focusing on is Sam Jones’ “Unit 7.”

I particularly like the way Joe Zawinul incorporates bebop and blues vocabulary in his solo. The form of the tune is “blues with a bridge” in the key of C. The sections marked A, B, and D are each 12-bars in length while C functions as an 8-bar bridge. The blues progression is slightly non-standard, with an Abmaj7 chord in bar 9 (and, by extension, 21 & 41) that leads to G7alt in bar 10 (and its companions). This harmonic motion is common in a minor blues progression, but less so in a major blues like this one. Also listen for the “Lady Bird” turnaround that happens at the end of many of the phrases (C – Eb- Ab- Db). Zawinul outlines this turnaround clearly at the end of the bridge in bars 31 and 32.

May 29, 2014

Blues Vocabulary from Richie Powell on Sandu

Richie Powell is one of my favorite hard bop pianists. His vocabulary is clear and accessible and this solo is a great example of that. He died at a young age in the same accident that took the life of his contemporary (and bandleader on this album) Clifford Brown.

Listen for the inventive rhythmic variety that helps the blues scale come to life and the way the energy builds over the three choruses, resolving gracefully in the lower octave.

May 28, 2014

Tools of the trade

I am always on the lookout for tools to streamline my work. I recently discovered Notate Me by Neuratron Ltd that recognizes handwritten music notation and converts it to MIDI, MusicXML, etc.

I tried the free version of the app while transcribing two choruses of blues vocabulary by Richie Powell (younger brother of Bud Powell) on Sandu from Clifford Brown and Max Roach’s “Study In Brown”

The iPad version has room for your handwriting at the bottom and the recognized notation at the top

This app comes very close to the vision I had three years ago of being able to jot down by hand a quick melody on my iPhone or iPad and immediately be able to hear back the notes or copy them into a music engraving program like Finale or Sibelius (or Notion on the iPad).

While the recognition is not perfect, I have high hopes for this type of workflow in the future.

As for the music, if you have ever wondered how to use the blues scale effectively, check out Richie’s three choruses on Sandu. Only once or twice does he play a note outside the blues scale, but he finds a way to sound fresh on each chorus and build the intensity thought the entire solo. This would be a good first transcription for a beginning improviser.