Tag: Rhythm

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.

Bill Evans - Oleo Bridge Harmony
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.

Bill Evans - Oleo Bridge Rhythm
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.

Bill Evans - Oleo Bridge Complete
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.

Kenny Dorham on Blue Bossa

This week’s Transcription Tuesday is the first sixteen bars of Kenny Dorham’s solo on Blue Bossa from Joe Henderson’s debut record Page One (1963).

The tune was written by Dorham and and is the type of tune that you can always call at a jam because everyone will know it (it also tends to get groans from those who feel it has been “worn out”). The harmony is primarily in the key of C minor with bars 9-12 taking a short detour to the key of D-flat major.

If you are not already familiar with the tune, make sure to listen to the original melody in addition to checking out this solo.

I won’t spoil the surprise for those of you who haven’t heard it, but suffice to say this is definitely a solo to study if you have ever wondered how to begin improvising.