The band drops out and it is just bass and Sonny playing over the chords, and it is basically just F minor, but not natural minor, (with an Eb) but melodic minor, with an E natural.
Here is the lick as Sonny plays it
And here it is written out, first at a slower tempo and then at a faster more Sonny-like tempo.
Slow Speed
bass lick tempo 100 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2
Insanely Fast
bass lick tempo 220 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2
There are a ton of things to learn from this lick:
What chord tones does he use? (hint - all of them)
How does he make those chord tones fall on strong beats?
Why does the lick sound so strong and resolve so well?
What non-chord tones does he use, and where do those get placed?
And this is just two measures of his solo, he goes on and on like this for two full choruses. Gonna post more licks as I decipher them.
Check out how awesome his entire solo is here via YouTube:
It has been several weeks since the last one of these, but hey, what can I say, those episodes of "Barely Legal Icelandic Bikini Teens Gone Wild" don't download themselves, ya know. These things take time.
But, returning to things musical, ya can never have too many of these, the ol' i-iv funky bass line. This one is maybe in kinda a Carol Kaye-esque super-syncopated groove style. Kinda busy, but the trick is to not make it sound like it is.
Here is a jazz-ed up blues progression that Jeff Berlin uses in his book on chord tones.
There are two versions of the audio, one at a tempo ridiculoso of 200 bpm, and one at a human tempo of 120 bpm.
Same drill as before, these are mp3s that play 5 times through the progression (so 60 measures total), but they are loopable so if you play them in any app that allows looping (and is any good at it) it will keep going and going.
I use Quicktime player, it works great, its free, and it's already on your machine if you have a Mac.
There are some extra juicy chords in this progression, some might look a little strange if you are used to playing the standard 3-chord I-IV-V blues. There are a bunch of extra dominant chords for the turnaround, a couple diminished chords sprinkled here and there, and even a fancy little thing called a tri-tone sub.
This tri-tone sub character shows up in measure 4, it is that E7, right after the Bb7 and right before the Eb7.
Here is the idea behind this crazy thing - the most important notes (other than the root) of any chord are the third and the seventh, because those are the notes that give away what type of chord it is, either major, minor, dominant, whatever. So those notes matter the most and the rest are somewhat secondary. There are a lot of piano players that don't even play the root sometimes, they just leave it out.
Now for the wild part: these two different chords, the Bb7 and the E7 have exactly the same third and seventh, they are just switched!. So that means if one were sneaky one could actually use one in place of the other if one wanted to make things sound a little more interesting. Check it out.
If we were going to follow the "rules" we would put a Bb (and lets just go ahead and make it a dominant since this is a blues shall we?) in front of the Eb, so we would get Bb7 to Eb7, or V to I. And that is how measure 4 starts, with a Bb7. So far so good. But then comes this E7. Huh?
Since you are a chord spelling master, you can peer into this mystery to see what notes make up both of these two chords in measure 4, the Bb7 and the E7.
Bb7
Bb
D
F
Ab
E7
E
G#
B
D
Notice anything? The important notes, the third and the seventh of both chords are THE SAME, just inverted. No way. Ya-huh. The third of one is the seventh of the other and vice versa. Oh, they try and deny it by going all enharmonic, but Ab is the same thing as G# remember, so when we pierce their little web of lies what we have is:
Bb7
Bb - root
D - third
F - fifth
Ab (G#!) - seventh
E7
E - root
G#(Ab!) - third
B - fifth
D - seventh
This is a tri-tone sub, you take a chord a tri-tone away from the chord you want to substitute for because it has the same juicy important notes (third and seventh) as the original chord. E is a tri-tone, or a flatted fifth away from Bb, but they both have a G# (or an Ab) and a D in them so they can behave very very similarly, and if you want, you can use one in place of another.
Now instead of a measure of a single Bb7 chord, this progression does some ridiculoso extendo by adding that E7 after that Bb7 and now there are two different (but the same!) chords per measure and some additional choices are available for soloing instead of just have one chord per measure as a garden variety I-IV-V blues usually has.
So there ya go. The Tritone Substitution. This doesn't necessarily make the progression "better" or anything, it is just another way to add some interest to a blues.
Spent some time goofing around with GarageBand and the many minutes of hard work (not really), have resulted in a handy play along file that others may find some use for. Ya can't have too many ii-v's to practice. Use it to work up some of the ii-v licks posted previously, or your favorite lick from Pent-up House or just to practice soloing on, there are a million and one uses. Goes great on salads too.
The track is very very simple rhythmically, just whole notes, so you can really hear how any notes you play fit (or don't) against the chords. There is also no bass so you can add your own.
Here is a simple chart that shows the order of the progression. The mp3 is loopable so it will continuously repeat until you get the lick nailed. Click on the chart, save to disk, blah blah all that.
To loop the audio, just load the mp3 in Quicktime Player (free for mac and windows), and just select "Loop". Ta-da. Done. Then bust out your favorite ii-V-I lick and practice moving it through each key.
Play just the third of each chord as a whole note. Record yourself so you can hear what that sounds like. Then do the 5th, 7th, etc to hear what each note sounds like against each chord.
Run the arpeggio of each chord up and down.
Play other arpeggios against the chord, for instance on Dmin, try a F maj, or an Amin arpeggio, on the G7 try a Bmin7b5 and go up to the ninth. HA! Tricked ya, that is just the G7 starting on the third! But check it out, play around with stuff like that.
Start a scale on the third of each chord and go up in 8th notes. Try different scales (appropriate ones for each chord type). Where does the end of the scale leave you relative to the next chord? A nice juicy note?
Play different pentatonics against each chord, on Dmin7 try Amin, Emin, and even, wait for it, Bmin.
And of course, practice walking lines over the progressions. This is the most common progression there is in a lot of improvised music, so you can't ever go wrong trying different ways to connect these chords.
Enjoy. And if there are any other progressions y'all would like to see let me know, or if you would be interested in how to make your own, I could do a post on that as well. Ciao!
Another new one today. And, yes, I realize there are multiple tunes in progress, but hey, I get bored easy. So piano, tenor, trumpet, bass...that should do it for a while. Maybe.
After Mr. Evans and Mr. Coltrane, Clifford Brown is almost easy to transcribe. His tone is so clear, there is no ambiguity in either his notes or his rhythms, his execution is very, very precise. It's like he plays piano, but just with his mouth.
Without further ado, let us continue. We left our hero approaching the bridge to Oleo, with 8 full measures of nothing but dominant chords for him to smite and lay waste to. Let us witness the destruction that ensues!
I added the generic Rhythm Changes for the bridge, just so you can see how many altered notes he plays against the standard chords. Again, no nice little box patterns in this solo for bass, it is all about melodic shapes that don't come from Bass-land. Knock yourself out analyzing those notes against those bridge chords. For instance on the D7 he plays F naturals, A flats, D flats - its a free for all!
Happy Pi day. And Albert Einstein's birthday. So if you saw a black hole today, thats why.
And speaking of Nobel-prize winning german physicists and the speed of gravity, how about some Bill Evans licks?
I took this one from "Oleo" off his record "Everybody Digs Bill Evans". I predict that after listening and checking out what he did in just the first 16 measures of the tune you will see why the title of that record is very accurate. It was a trio with Sam Jones and Philly Jo Jones.
Two more choruses, (chori?) coming at you and guess what, this guy breaks the rules too.
To B natural
Some funny things start happening in these two choruses, and I don't mean funny ha-ha.
For one, a suspicious number of b naturals start showing up in the bass line. I think he is in cahoots with Mr. Coltrane. Up until this chorus, he would play B flats, but what do you think, do you think he and Coltrane got together beforehand and agreed to do this? Or do you think that now that he is three choruses in, and Mr. P.C. has heard Coltrane go all honey-badger bananas and spray B naturals everywhere, so him and his radar ears just said "Oh it's like that, huh? Okay, it's on!" and started throwing natural sevenths into the bass line as well. That is a bass player that is listening, right there.
More bass this time, once I started I couldn't stop myself, so maybe we will catch up with the tenor solo and do the bass line up to chorus six as well.
Walking? More like running.
At this tempo it is more like a sprint than a walking bass line. But, just like Coltrane, does P.C care? Of course not. Let's see how he attacks this thing at a tempo this crazy.
A brief respite from the tenorisms of Mr. Coltrane for today.
Rather we shall take a look at what the songs name sake, Mr. Paul Chambers, is doing down there at over 200 bpm while Coltrane is busy abusing those poor chord tones.
So, below are the first two choruses of the bass line, the one played during the melody of Mr. P.C.
Its like he has an army of chord assassins and uses ninja fingers that shoot fire to create music that regular people will never be able to comprehend. Because they don't have tiger blood.
No, not that guy, oh please, that guy is a mere insignificant napping earthworm compared to the ridiculoso orignal, tiger-blooded, martian rock star, sick of pretending he is not special, musical genius F-18 that is - Coltrane.
Just wanted to clear that up once and for all.
And as exhibit A, let us delve into chorus number 6 from said maniac.
Okay, after having to resort to repeated listening of "Music Box Dancer" in order to offset the Coltrane that has been bored into my ear holes, it is now possible to resume with our next chorus of the merciless onslaught. Steel your loins. If you have them.
Flouting
He is not happy with just playing "wrong" notes all over the place, he is double-dog-daring someone to call him on it. He is saying, "hey, its not enough for you when I play the major seven huh, well how about if it is the very first note of an entire chorus, huh, now what you are gonna do? Huh? Oh you gonna do something now?".
Okay, still not recovered to handle another 12 measures of Coltrane tonight, so instead...McCoy Tyner.
McCoy is one of the last living old timers, between him and Sonny Rollins, they represent some of the last living links back to the early days of bop all that jazz has been through since then. The list of people McCoy has played with is like a history book of jazz - Coltrane, Brecker, Jones, Garrison, Henderson, Dorham, Blakey ... the list has all of 'em. How many albums has he been on? 100? 500? A heck of a lot. He even had Derek Trucks play on his last album, so he is just about making music of any kind, even now in his 70's.
I have been listening to Inception, McCoy's debut album as a leader, every day since I found it. He plays so many cool things on each tune every time through there is something new and awesome lurking around in there.
Case in point - the song "Blues For Gwen". It's just a blues right, every jazz album has one. What's the big deal. Well, check out the entire chorus below which is basically one crazy long complete phraseridiculoso that McCoy just kinda rattles off like it was nothing as the eighth chorus he takes (at about 2:03). .
McCoy playing it at tempo (about 225 ish)
McCoy Speed for Bass
bass lick 4/4 swing 70 tempo 230 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |
McCoy Half-Speed
Half Speed For Bass
bass lick 4/4 swing 50 tempo 112 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |
You bust out a phrase like this on your next solo and watch the props you get. Wow.
You think it is gonna end, but it doesnt end, it just keeps going and then at the end it just parks itself with a "how do you like them apples, huh?" finality to it. A whole chorus as one phrase takes some big ears.
What will happen today? Will he play a Bb on the C minor? Will he force some crazy chord substitution over an F min chord that never did anything to anyone to warrant such treatment? Let us see what chord carnage Mr. Coltrane has in store for these poor unsuspecting next 12 measures of his minor blues, Mr. P.C.
Continuing from yesterday's episode...we left our hero, Mr. Coltrane rapidly, (and I do mean rapidly) approaching his second chorus...
And on this chorus he does some saxophone-isms that are somewhat simplified for bass here, some of the rhythms he plays are not exactly triplets, and they are not exactly 16ths either, they are of some kind of tenor-istic-phrasing-duration..so the rhythms represent as close as I could get. If anyone has any alternative suggestions, let me know.
We have probably all played it. It is the defacto minor jazz blues, written by John Coltrane for one of the most famous bass players ever, Paul Chambers. It is on Mr. Trane's most famous album, "Giant Steps" and we are gonna look at his crazy solo, a chorus at a time.
Coltrane's solo on Mr. P.C might actually work on bass. This was before he went completely into another star child dimension of karmic existence and he was still playing in a way some of us humans might actually be able to emulate. Maybe.
I am going to try to go through his entire solo, all 16 choruses of it, and transcribe it all. I think it is doable. I have listened to it over and over and there is only one or two places that he gets really crazy and it might not be playable on bass, but over all, it just might be playable on bass with some minor tweaks. I think.
Also, since this is a blues and there are only 4 chords in the whole tune, it makes for really easy analysis and investigation into what he was playing. Even in only this first chorus, there is a dump truck full of goodies. I see posts from guys all the time saying "how do I know what to play when I solo?", well, look at these licks and dissect what he is doing and your cup will be overflowing with ridiculoso. Let us examine some things from The Master, shall we?
This is a tune from McCoy's first trio record, "Inception", from 1961 or there abouts. It is an awesome record, there is not a bad tune on it, and McCoy is being McCoy and just blazing. The bassist is a guy named Art Davis and he goes mano-y-mano with McCoy on a couple of tunes where they play unison lines during the melody of"There Is No Greater Love", and this one, "Effendi". Effendi is a term used in Turkey for government officials. So says the internet. I will have to go watch "Midnight Express" again and see if that is true.
This tune is sort of McCoys twist on a modal tune like "So What", but McCoy uses an ABA form, so it goes:
Here is a line from the King of Reggae bass, Aston "Family Man" (because he has more than 50 kids. No joke. He is obviously doing something besides practicing his scales....) Barrett laying it down through a thick cloud of pakalolo smoke on one of Mr. Marley's last songs before his untimely death.
This is only the verse groove, and the first time through it doesn't go to the E min, it just goes between the F and G. Nothing but triad chord tones and, man does it groove. I guess he is practicing his triads after all.
bass lick 4/4 tempo 60 | Fmaj f16 r c+ a f r8 r16 c+ r c a f r8 r16 | Gmaj g-16 g r g b r d r g- g g r r4 | Fmaj f+16 r c+ a f r8 r16 c+ r c a f r8 r16 | Emin e32 r32 e8 e16 b r b r e e e r r4 |
And here is the full tune, it is not one of his bigger hits but it has an unusually pop-y bass line. Bopland spreads out those sixteenths a little in the notation, so just listen to the groove to get the feel.
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