Amazing work. Miles and Trane’s centennial + Sonny Rollin’s departure have made this year an incredible opportunity to magnify, cherish and explore their work and influence deeper and I’m thankful for it. I just finished reading Miles autobiography , and now my favorite jazz writer/historian with an amazing read I’ll be referencing to students and friends.
Love the insight about the Ornette-ness of the first line of "Half Nelson"!
If I follow, you're saying the Tyner-Jones rhythm section allows Trane to come across as sleek even when he's still burbling. Is it Tyner's voicings that do the trick?
great piece Ethan. Much to think about - sleek and burble, etc.
Also a heartbreakingly apropos Hunter Thompson quote.
(Brought to mind a more widely known HT observation, quite a bit ligher but with a dark truth in it:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”)
"But there’s also some kind of private intellect and private folklore that sorts the discourse of his alto solos. No one has ever said what that is, and that goes doubly true of Miles."
Don't you think Bird's comment "I'm just looking for the pretty notes" says what it is?
Is that simple comment too simple to be an explanation, or does it tell me EXACTLY what to do, in a few words?
It might be a true explication of Bird's internal process, but given how much bad info has been floating around for 80 years about what Bird was doing w/his pitches, including the oft-cited-but-fraudulent quote about playing the "upper extensions", I think it's fair to say that what that meant in analytic terms to Bird remains opaque.
My highly inexpert opinion is something like: prior to bop, jazz soloists weren't that bothered about the changes. They MOSTLY played melodies in the key. If the harmony moved in a notable way, they had the option to move with it or rub against it. (This is also how musicians improvise in basically every other style of chord-based American music; literally spelling out harmonic motion is an option, but one that's used sparingly, although ignoring the harmonic motion entirely tends to sound like a beginner fumbling around. Country song moves from G major to A7 on the way to D7, you can tag the C# for effect or you can keep playing sweet melodies from the G pentatonic scale. The masters of the style did both.)
The bop innovators codified a lot of progressive musical ideas. One of them was a way of literally spelling harmony through their improvised melodies so that a savvy listener could hear the chords going by, even w/out a rhythm section. (They didn't create this idea, of course, Coleman Hawkins and Don Byas were working the same vein.) BUT when Bird or Bud were filling up the space with that boppish melodic harmony they still weren't actually that bothered about the changes everybody else was playing, whereas most of their followers were more literal.
nice comment. I would say that both Bird and Bud have a private language. It not that they aren't bothered by the changes as much as they make the changes do their bidding rather than the other way around...somehow...
I recently read the Miles chapter in Stanley Crouch’s Considering Genius. It got me listening to some of the pre-1955 stuff. Percy Heath is a very cool player and they have him way up in the mix on these records. But you can see why Miles pivots towards Paul Chambers. The note choices and muscularity are just a level above with Mr PC.
"Ethan Colossus" might be an alternative title for this wonderful lesson, which will take weeks to properly absorb it. Congrats, Ethan, on the brilliant essay.
Nice piece...but now I might need to sort my jazz collection into Burble or Sleek. Thanks. By the way, you're invited to Central NY to help out with that process .... LOL
Wow! Just a fun, fascinating piece to read. Kudos to your extensive research in writing this.
Amazing work. Miles and Trane’s centennial + Sonny Rollin’s departure have made this year an incredible opportunity to magnify, cherish and explore their work and influence deeper and I’m thankful for it. I just finished reading Miles autobiography , and now my favorite jazz writer/historian with an amazing read I’ll be referencing to students and friends.
thank you for exceptionally kind comment!
Love the insight about the Ornette-ness of the first line of "Half Nelson"!
If I follow, you're saying the Tyner-Jones rhythm section allows Trane to come across as sleek even when he's still burbling. Is it Tyner's voicings that do the trick?
yes, exactly, the suspended qualities of most Tyner voicings will not clash with Trane's substations.
Man how ever much Miles might dismiss the Mingus/Teddy Charles Debut record that shit rules.
Hard disagree! but whatever floats your boat
I am also a big fan of that session, a very early Elvin Jones document, though I certainly understand all the reasons not to like it.
*clutches heart in despair*
great piece Ethan. Much to think about - sleek and burble, etc.
Also a heartbreakingly apropos Hunter Thompson quote.
(Brought to mind a more widely known HT observation, quite a bit ligher but with a dark truth in it:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”)
another great one!
Thanks for this insightful and thorough piece.
right on
Beautiful essay!
"But there’s also some kind of private intellect and private folklore that sorts the discourse of his alto solos. No one has ever said what that is, and that goes doubly true of Miles."
Don't you think Bird's comment "I'm just looking for the pretty notes" says what it is?
Is that simple comment too simple to be an explanation, or does it tell me EXACTLY what to do, in a few words?
I think rhythm is in the picture. I don't know what it is but Bird relates to clave, etc.
It might be a true explication of Bird's internal process, but given how much bad info has been floating around for 80 years about what Bird was doing w/his pitches, including the oft-cited-but-fraudulent quote about playing the "upper extensions", I think it's fair to say that what that meant in analytic terms to Bird remains opaque.
My highly inexpert opinion is something like: prior to bop, jazz soloists weren't that bothered about the changes. They MOSTLY played melodies in the key. If the harmony moved in a notable way, they had the option to move with it or rub against it. (This is also how musicians improvise in basically every other style of chord-based American music; literally spelling out harmonic motion is an option, but one that's used sparingly, although ignoring the harmonic motion entirely tends to sound like a beginner fumbling around. Country song moves from G major to A7 on the way to D7, you can tag the C# for effect or you can keep playing sweet melodies from the G pentatonic scale. The masters of the style did both.)
The bop innovators codified a lot of progressive musical ideas. One of them was a way of literally spelling harmony through their improvised melodies so that a savvy listener could hear the chords going by, even w/out a rhythm section. (They didn't create this idea, of course, Coleman Hawkins and Don Byas were working the same vein.) BUT when Bird or Bud were filling up the space with that boppish melodic harmony they still weren't actually that bothered about the changes everybody else was playing, whereas most of their followers were more literal.
nice comment. I would say that both Bird and Bud have a private language. It not that they aren't bothered by the changes as much as they make the changes do their bidding rather than the other way around...somehow...
I recently read the Miles chapter in Stanley Crouch’s Considering Genius. It got me listening to some of the pre-1955 stuff. Percy Heath is a very cool player and they have him way up in the mix on these records. But you can see why Miles pivots towards Paul Chambers. The note choices and muscularity are just a level above with Mr PC.
Well I don't know how to pick between Percy and P.C. myself but I do think Percy simply went with the Modern Jazz Quartet, which was getting hot.
"Ethan Colossus" might be an alternative title for this wonderful lesson, which will take weeks to properly absorb it. Congrats, Ethan, on the brilliant essay.
you are too kind, thanks
Another great seminar...I'd rather have EI than AI any day
thanks very much!
Nice piece...but now I might need to sort my jazz collection into Burble or Sleek. Thanks. By the way, you're invited to Central NY to help out with that process .... LOL
love it thanks Vince Sr.!
"diatonic twilight" made my day.
Haha thanks!