PRACTICE PORTAL

“Fly, Little Byrd” is a tune by Donald Byrd, from his 1987 Landmark CD, HARLEM BLUES. along with Byrd are featured Kenny Garrett on alto sax, Mulgrew Miller on piano, Rufus Reid on bass, Marvin “Smitty” Smith on drums and Mike Daugherty playing synth on a couple of tracks. it’s my favorite tune from the record. the first half of the 16 bar melody is diminished cycle, made up of a two bar motif that descends by minor thirds. trumpet and alto are harmonized in thirds. the progression is cyclic as well. it begins in F Major and descends by alternating whole and half steps. every odd chord is Major and every even one is Dominant (except for the 8th bar which is a ii- V back to F Major). the progression on the second half of the song is also a cycle, this time alternating between ascending fourths and descending minor seconds (the final bar, like the 8th bar, is a ii- V back to F Major). it makes for a really challenging framework for improvisation…

DONALD BYRD- FLY, LITTLE BYRD (mp3)

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Two years after HARLEM BLUES, Byrd released another disc on Landmark entitled GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS. Garrett is the only player that he kept for this session. he also added a third horn, Joe Henderson on tenor sax. the rhythm section is Donald Brown on piano, bassist Peter Washington and Al Foster playing drums. there a number of great compositions here, the standouts being Donald Brown’s “Theme For Malcolm”, “Pomponio” by Bobby Hutcherson and “A Certain Attitude” by James Williams. in addition to those, there is Byrd’s tune, “The Onliest”, an almost Monkish melody followed by open blowing, and Henderson’s “Around The Corner”, a blues that was called “Teeter Totter” on his Blue Note record, OUR THING…

DONALD BYRD- THE ONLIEST (mp3)

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JOE HENDERSON- AROUND THE CORNER (mp3)

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DIZZY GILLESPIE- OL’ MAN REBOP (mp3)

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The solo below by Booker Little is from the song “Booker’s Blues”, that can be found on his record BOOKER LITTLE AND FRIEND. i transcribed the lead sheet in an earlier post and have finally gotten around to pulling his solo off the record. the blowing form and chord progression is a bit different from that of the head. it alternates between a 12 bar minor blues and an 8 bar section (2 bars of Ab minor and 2 bars of Eb minor repeated once). Little displays his great virtuosity and passion in this solo, playing intriguing melodic ideas and spectacular 16th note bursts. the thing i really enjoy about his lines is his use of the melodic minor scale. those major 6ths and 7ths are not as prevalent in improvisation nowadays but they lend a certain energy to minor melodies that a minor 7th doesn’t… beautiful solo!

BOOKER LITTLE- BOOKER’S BLUES (mp3)

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Here are a couple of solos from two of jazz’s trumpet giants. they come from the album CLIFFORD BROWN MEMORIAL that features material recorded by the Tadd Dameron Orchestra which features Brown along with luminaries from bebop’s 2nd wave like Benny Golson, Percy Heath, Gigi Gryce and Philly Joe Jones. the rest of the album is made up of music by a group called the Swedish All Stars, with Brown and Farmer as featured soloists, supported by several European sidemen. Farmer and Brown were contemporaries, born within two years of each other, and only a few years after bebop’s initial icons- Bird, Dizzy and Monk. but their styles diverge considerably. Brown’s playing is generally seen as an extension of the Fats Navarro style of trumpeting, characterized by crisply articulated linear explorations conveyed with a full bodied sound, an ability to utilize the entire range of the horn with authority, and a firm grasp of the bebop vocabulary. Farmer’s style wasn’t as technically brilliant or facile as Brown’s but still, he had a rich and expressive sound as well as a lyrical style full of interesting ideas. listening to “Stockholm Sweetnin’”, i’m reminded of other players like Miles Davis or Chet Baker who weren’t superhuman technicians but still managed to move audiences with their effective manipulation of sound and space, and their great ideas.

Farmer and Brown blow together over four songs on CLIFFORD BROWN MEMORIAL. i’ve included  the Farmer and Brown solos on Quincy Jones’  tune, “Stockholm Sweetnin’”, the standard, “Falling In Love With Love”, as well as a two chorus Brown solo on Tadd Dameron’s “Philly JJ”.

Each trumpeter takes a chorus long solo on “Stockholm”; Farmer opens the blowing and Brown takes the last solo which starts and ends on the song’s bridge. they also take a chorus each on “Falling In Love With Love”. i enjoy both trumpeters’ sounds; full, rich and dark.  though their vocabularies are similar in their way, there are some things that stand them apart from each other. Farmer’s eighth note is straighter and sounds more labored than Brown’s. he attacks each note and sounds a bit like he’s “thinking”- much more deliberate than Brown, who has an easy, flexible articulation. Farmer’s solo is made up almost exclusively of eighth notes with triplet figures added sparingly. Brown, on the other hand, generally plays a much more elaborate line: using smears, glissandi and other effects, circling chord tones with neighboring notes, extensively using triplet figures and sixteenth note runs to add variety to his blowing. Brown’s sense of rhythm is more highly developed. his pocket is very wide, allowing him to place his notes on different parts of the beat. this enables him to convey a broader range of energy, from urgent to nonchalant. both play effective solos but for different reasons, in my opinion. Farmer’s spare, unadorned lines allow a listener to zero in on his interesting melodic ideas and beautiful sound. Brown, who’s solo from “Philly J.J.” i’ve also transcribed below, is one of those once-in-a-generation musicians who had all the tools of a great improviser in hand: a deep understanding of harmony, a strong grasp of melody, taste, a big, pure sound and jaw-dropping command of his axe. Brown wasn’t given time to exploit the full potential of his awesome gifts. who knows what direction jazz trumpeting would have taken had he been able to fully blossom as a bandleader and stylistic pioneer. Farmer, who passed away a little over a decade ago, enjoyed a long and fruitful career as a bandleader. i’m listening to live recording from Sweet Basil from the late 90s, featuring him and Clifford Jordan up front. i hear some of the same qualities on it that i hear on MEMORIAL, his rich, dark sound (he plays a flumpet on this recording) and his measured, spare concept…

ART FARMER AND CLIFFORD BROWN

STOCKHOLM SWEETNIN’ SOLOS (mp3)

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ART FARMER AND CLIFFORD BROWN

FALLING IN LOVE WITH LOVE SOLOS (mp3)

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CLIFFORD BROWN

PHILLY J.J. SOLO (mp3)

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This post came about because of a request from A.S., who has written me a couple of times expressing his support (thanks). i was only vaguely familiar with “Happy Times”, a tune by Hubbard featured on the record THE ARTISTRY OF FREDDIE HUBBARD. there are more recent versions of the song that have a short vamp at the end of the form but i pulled this from the above record. the changes are pretty close, probably not exact. enjoy…

FREDDIE HUBBARD

HAPPY TIMES (mp3)

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Freddie… the picture pretty much says it all. he played his solo over “Birdlike” just like he looks here: confident, virile and slick. he spins out chorus after seemingly effortless chorus filled with great ideas, swing and that awesome SOUND…

FREDDIE HUBBARD

SOLO FROM BIRDLIKE (mp3)

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Booker Little’s date, Out Front, is perhaps his best recording, followed closely by Booker Little And Friend. both are standouts because of excellent writing and blowing but what puts Out Front out front are the personnel choices: Eric Dolphy on woodwinds and Julian Priester on trombone, with the rhythm section of Max Roach on percussion, Ron Carter or Art Davis on bass, and Don Friedman on piano. the addition of Eric Dolphy, who doubles on bass clarinet and flute, opens up more textural possibilities for Little’s writing, which he takes full advantage of. also, to my ear, because the record features only original material by Little, Out Front sounds like a more personal vision. the 7 songs feel closely related and flow into and out of each other. in these days of 20 song recordings, you don’t often hear “whole” records anymore. somewhat like Kind Of Blue, Out Front is a brief but emphatic statement of an artist’s vision that leaves a listener wanting more but doesn’t leave him feeling short-changed. the title, “Out Front” also suggests that Little saw this record as his introduction to the world as a bandleader. “Hazy Hues” begins with a mysterious unison line over a two chord progression:

[F min / / ] [Gb7 / / ] [F min / / ] [F min / / ]

Little, with Dolphy on flute, plays the first phrase. this is answered by Priester’s trombone along with the rhythm section featuring Roach on tympami. Little and Dolphy play a second line which is again followed by the other musicians. after a brief cadenza, played by Little over the same progression as above, the main melody begins in 5/4 time. the first four bars of the progression look like this:

[Bb min (maj7) / / / / ] [G min9 (b5) / / / / ]

[Eb min11 / / / / ] [B13 (b5) / / / / ]

the horns outline the Bb min(maj7) chord in the style of a musical canon. the other horns then support Little as he states the rest of the melodic phrase over the next three chords. what a beautiful progression! 3 of the 4 chords utilize the sound of an augmented triad (A Db F) and, excepting the Eb min11 chord, retain the essential color of the first chord. the next part of the progression is a group of Bb minor chords that features a moving tone, played by the two lower horns, that starts on the 5th and goes up by half steps to the sixth, then back down to the b6th:

[Bb min / / Bb min (b6) / ] [Bb min6 / / Bb minb6 / ]

[E13 / / Eb13 / ] [Eb13 / / / / ]

the Bb minb6 chord makes a strong move to an E7b13 and then to an Eb13 chord to end the phrase. Little often uses a three horn cluster in his arrangements that has the outer voices spread out over a major 7th with the inner voice either a fourth or a tritone away from the bottom voice. the bottom horn voice is then positioned a minor 7th above the bass voice. depending on the placement of the middle horn, Little gets a nice, open dominant or minor thirteenth sound. with the next phrase, Little crunches the horns together into tight clusters over a Db in the bass. the first cluster is Eb, E, Ab. the second is an A major triad in first inversion. following that, the first cluster is transposed up a fourth: Ab, A, Db. the final cluster is G, Bb, F#. the phrase is then ended with two min (maj7) chords. notating the fourth chord in this sequence is a little iffy. my guess is this:

[Db min9 / / Db min (b6) / ] [Db min (b6) / / G dim (maj7)/Db / ]

[Eb min (maj7) / / / / ] [Db min (maj7) / / / / ]

the next phrase starts like the last but moves in a different direction:

[Db min9 / / D maj9 / / ] [F# min7 / / / / ]

[Bb min (maj7) / / E (maj7#11)/ Bb__Ab maj13]

[G7 (b5) / / Ab13 / ] [A/G / / / / ] [A/G / / / / ]

the Bb min(maj7) chord starts a moving line in the two bottom horns that is just plain sick. the bottom voice moves along a diminished scale and finally lands on an E (in the A/G) chord. the middle voice runs along a Bb min scale, then to the third of the G7 (b5) and Ab13 chords and comes to rest on an A. the E finds resolution by moving to F in Bb min (maj7) when the melody is restated, while the A brings to mind the major 7th of the initial chord of the melody. the reason i labeled the last chord of this sequence A/G is because i couldn’t hear a seventh. the quality of the chord is “hazy”. the forceful return to the initial melody puts all ambiguity to rest. really beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated writing by Little, who at the time of this recording was around 23 years old(!) after the restatement of the melody, the song moves to a short coda section:

[Ab min / / Ab min/Gb / ] [E maj7 (#11) / / A13 (#11) / ] [Gb13 (#11) / / / / ]

[C min7 (b5) / / B ma7 (#11) / ] [Eb min7 / / / / ]

[C min7 (b5) / / B ma7 (#11) / ] [Eb min7 / / / / ]

some more nice counterpoint under the melody by the bottom voices. like before, many of the chords in this sequence share very similar colorings. the first three all have an Ab minor sound over changing bass notes, the next two are dominant chords with identical alterations, a minor third apart, and the last six chords have an Eb minor sound over the bass notes. theoretically speaking, many of the chords pairings are perhaps tenuously related. i like the idea of imagining harmonic progressions as colors on a canvas with varying degrees of lightness, saturation and hue, that bleed into and out of each other. i like hearing things that i can’t quite explain. there are many such instances on this record, which is what makes this recording so special to my eyes… the last section, a vamping interlude that is used as a segue into the solos, is a series of horn clusters over an Ab in the bass. i won’t even bother to try and notate the progression. just listen to it… Max Roach switches back to tympani during this section. the sound is really tense and martial, almost like a fanfare heralding the arrival of some high ranking group of dignitaries. in this case, they are Booker Little, followed closely by Eric Dolphy and Julian Priester, all of whom blow great solos… check it out.

BOOKER LITTLE- “HAZY HUES” (mp3)

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The music world suffered a great loss with the passing of Freddie Hubbard, a gifted and highly influential trumpeter. some of my favorite recordings of his playing are: Speak No Evil and The Soothsayer by Wayne Shorter, Mosaic, Ugetsu and Free For All led by Art Blakey, Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock and, as a leader, Hub Tones, Straight Life and Black Clay. you can find an article here with details of his accomplishments as well as some sound clips…

FREDDIE HUBBARD- BODY AND SOUL (mp3)

Booker Little, like Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro, was a young trumpeter who was taken from us before he realized his full potential. but in the time he was here, he left us with several awesome examples of his compositional genuis and deeply moving improvisations. by the time he passed at the age of 23, he had performed with, among others, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Abbey Lincoln and Coleman Hawkins. when i listen to his music i can’t help but wonder where his tremendous gifts would have taken him had he been given more time. some of his standout recordings include Max Roach’s Percussion Bittersweet, Abbey Lincoln’s Straight Ahead and his own date, Out Front. “Booker’s Blues” is a song from Booker Little And Friend and as the title suggests, it’s a blues. but like many of his compositions, he inserts some device that opens up more possibilities for expression. in this case, the combination of Booker’s soaring lyricism set against the tight harmonies of the other horns and the rhythm section’s pedal points creates an ever mounting tension that builds until melody gives way to the solos. the solo section has an AAB form made up of 2 choruses of blues followed by an 8 measure vamp. the vamp acts as a reservoir in which energy is quickly accumulated before it is released into the following chorus. below is a clip of the melody and a transcription of the score… i’ll be posting more music by Booker Little in the coming weeks because he is trumpeter/ composer that all musicians should be more aware of.

BOOKER LITTLE- BOOKER’S BLUES (mp3)

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