The Vibes

When we think of a typical jazz band, we generally think of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section containing bass and drums, maybe even piano and guitar. However, jazz bands have always been extremely versatile in their instrumentation. The bass player displaced the tuba, while the guitarist displaced the banjo. Clarinetists and violinists are frequently heard in jazz. Occasionally the brass section is extended with the flugelhorn or French horn. One of my favorite additions to a jazz band, in particular a small jam session setting, is the vibraphone.

The vibraphone, known more commonly as the vibes, was invented in the 1920s in the United States. It is classified with the xylophone, marimba, and glockenspiel as a percussion instrument. It was primarily played in wind ensembles within the percussion section until the 1930s. The following piece is a percussion arrangement that includes vibraphone. The creator of this video posted the sheet music in the video so if you follow the top line it makes the vibraphone part easier to pick out.

The vibraphone was first used in jazz shortly after its creation. Lionel Hampton was a drummer who after discovering and becoming interested in the vibraphone, convinced Louis Armstrong to add vibes to one of the songs they were recording: "Memories of You". The following video is that recording.

Though the vibes are technically a percussion instrument, their ability to play multiple notes at one time (using multiple mallets) makes them similar to the piano as well. Notice the introduction to this piece played entirely by vibraphone. If the vibes were left out of the recording, that introduction could have been played by the piano easily.

Lionel Hampton was aptly named the King of the Vibes. He brought the instrument into the spotlight and made the vibraphone a home in the jazz world. He would join the Benny Goodman band and later create his own groups, all along nurturing and perfecting the art of the vibes as a jazz instrument. The following clip from the movie A Song is Born shows a fantastic jam session of the song "Stealin' Apples" featuring Benny Goodman on clarinet and Lionel Hampton on vibes as well as the pianist (I believe it's Mel Powell, but I'm not positive). If you pay attention you'll also notice some other jazz greats, such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter and Tommy Dorsey.

Though Lionel Hampton will always be King of the Vibes, my first experience with the vibraphone as a jazz instrument came from the tune "Bag's Groove" by the Miles Davis Quintet. Bags was the nickname of Milt Jackson, another jazz vibraphonist. "Bag's Groove" was first recorded in 1954 and has since become a jazz standard.

Milt Jackson has a very different style than Lionel Hampton. He loved to play in 12 bar blues form and was a bebop player rather than a member of a swing band like Hampton. If you listen to his solo in "Bag's Groove", you will notice that Jackson tends to avoid chords for individual notes and interesting rhythms while Hampton's solo in "Stealin' Apples" is riff with chords and swings much harder than Jackson's solo. They both show a fondness for tremolos though Hampton's are about three times as fast as Jackson's.

There are many other great vibe players out in the jazz world and the vibes have never stopped being a jazz instrument. Though they're not something that we first think of when we look at the instrumentation of a jazz band, the vibraphone is definitely worth listening to and everyone should have a few vibe players in their jazz repertoire. 

Critical Listening #9: Blue Rondo a la Turk

Since we're still learning about bebop, I decided to explore some of the less typical bebop. This piece, although more popular than most bebop, stretches the boundaries of what was termed bebop. In some ways it is a cool jazz or West Coast jazz style but it still shares the angular quality of the original bebop. The piece is "Blue Rondo a la Turk" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

In this piece we hear drums, bass, piano, and alto saxophone. It has a lively beat though not particularly fast. The most interesting feature of this music is its time signature. Most jazz music is in 4/4 and therefore has a steady kind of marching beat. Brubeck experimented with many types of time signatures and this particular song is written in 9/8. Typically, 9/8 is split into (3+3+3)/8 but Brubeck splits his in (2+2+2+3)/8 in the form of a Turkish folk rhythm.

At the beginning of the piece Brubeck introduces the theme. It is 32 bars long with 8 bar sections and seems to have an ABAC form. He is accompanied by Paul Desmond, the sax player, on the B section. After this, the A theme is taken up by the sax player with Brubeck in the background. They improvise over the B and C sections using some difficult rhythmic phrases but always coming back to the A theme at the appropriate times. The continue the end of the second chorus into the large and heavy block chords Brubeck was known for.

From here we have a bridge where the time signature switches between 9/8 to 4/4 with Brubeck playing the 9/8 measures and Desmond playing the 4/4 measures before settling on a lazy 4/4 for the saxophonist solo.

The saxophone solo is played in 4/4 with 12 bar choruses. Four choruses are taken. The style here is very much cool jazz. The eighth notes aren't completely straight but they don't swing like in a typical swing song; they sound very angular. Desmond uses little vibrato except on very long notes. He bends lots of notes which introduces interesting and new pitches into his solo. If you listen closely to the bass, it is easy to hear how the saxophonist is improvising directly from the chords of the walking bass line. Desmond also frequently runs over into the new chorus with his old ideas, even running into Brubeck's solo by a few beats.

Brubeck takes a solo after Desmond which is also in 4/4 and four choruses long. Brubeck's solo is full of the same angular eighth notes but his solo still seems to swing pretty hard. Part of this can be attributed to Brubeck's style of playing. In comparison with Desmond's playing, Brubeck's seems very heavy-handed. He fills his solo with lots of triplet grace notes and simple ostinato which evolve into his signature block chords before receding to his previous ideas.

After Brubeck's solo, we find ourselves in the bridge again with Desmond playing the 4/4 measures and Brubeck playing the 9/8 measures except this time we transition back into 9/8 and the main theme. The ideas we saw at the beginning of the piece are repeated but we build up to the climax of the block chords more quickly and stay there, ending on on a very solid major chord following by a drum hit.

The rhythm section on this piece is easily ignored but fundamentally important. The bass and drums keep the tempo from dragging or speeding up even with the time signature changes. Though we may not consciously appreciate the drummer's accents, the solo section would seem very empty without them.

This piece is a great example of how jazz can split into many different genres, but still be intrinsically related.

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk is a very interesting character in jazz history. While many jazz musicians seem to stretch the boundaries of music as it was known at their time, Monk takes this to a new level. Not only his music, but his very technique and persona were radically different from anyone in his time. Because of the overwhelming amount of information about Monk, my post this week is going to be limited to his music.

In a world of bop where most playing is angular, Monk's playing seems ever more angular than most. Monk's playing is usually described as percussive or harsh. The following pieces are a good example of this: 

'Round Midnight

Trinkle Tinkle

Even though these two pieces have opposite styles, Monk's has the same feel. He plays very harshly even on the ballad piece. He doesn't use any semblance of legato but rather separates almost every notes other than his arpeggios. 

If careful attention is played to the video of "'Round Midnight", Monk is seen to frequent lift his hands off the piano only to let them drop back down. He also plays with his elbows stuck out at awkward angles and with flat fingers. He even plays with his elbows instead of his hands sometimes. Playing with his elbows sometimes makes him play multiple notes that are very close together. This same sound is heard frequently in his playing because he plays flat fingered which causes him to hit multiple accidental notes.

To some, Monk's playing sounds sloppy and unpracticed. However, while Monk's playing is highly unorthodox, his style is very much the product of practice and skill. When Monk plays lyrical passages or arpeggios, it is easy to see that he has had classical training and that it has stuck with him. Monk's "sloppiness" is his own choice. By abandoning his orthodox training, Monk created his own musical persona and style that while largely unaccepted during the 40s was admired during the 50s and 60s.

Sources: 
Bebop by Thomas Owens
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley

Critical Listening #8: Love For Sale

For my listening this week, I chose Dexter Gordon's "Love For Sale". It was released in 1962.

In this piece we can hear drums, piano, bass, and tenor saxophone. The tune has a form of AABA.

Intro -- piano comping, drums with a latin beat, bass
8 bar A
8 bar A
8 bar B
8 bar A
2 chorus sax solo
2 chorus piano solo
1 chorus sax solo
8 bar A
vamp -- fade out

When Gordon plays the first chorus, he plays the theme in a very square, bop manner but the tune is still recognizable. Underneath this the bass player plays a rhythmic bassline (not walking) while the pianist comps. The drummer plays a slow four on the toms and rims, but switches to a cymbal sound in double time on the B section.

Gordon's first solo section starts with a four note pick-up into his first chorus. His solo hints more at Lester Young's style than Coleman Hawkin's. He plays along the chords instead of "in" them. His style is slightly more relaxed in his solo than his angular rendition of the main theme. He takes similar riffs and repeats them over different chord progressions. He plays with little to no vibrato. At one point, however, he uses a slow tremolo and he also uses many blues notes which add a different flavor. In his second solo section (after the piano solo), he begins with a variation on the melody from "Mexican Hat Dance". His solo runs straight into the main theme to end the piece.

The piano solo is less angular than the sax solo. It seems to me to have more of a cool bop, rather than a hard bop feel. The pianist plays lots of series of triplet grace notes as well as using the blues scale extensively. The solo is much lighter than the sax solo and seems more at ease. The higher register only adds to this impression. In some instances tension is built by using dissonance and repetition. The piano solo ends with some block chords that overlap with the beginning of Gordon's second solo section.

The rhythm section on this piece is not particularly entertaining, but they keep a good beat and tempo. The drummer offers the most variation with changes to double time and differing drumming styles. The drummer uses a latin feel on the rims of the snares with the toms, but also uses a very "static-y" cymbal feel during both the solos and the B sections.

This piece is definitely a hard bop piece. It has the jam session feel as well as angular melodies over the chord progressions, a rhythm section with a comping pianist, and a solo member backed by just a rhythm section.

Bebop and the Hipster Counterculture Movement

At the end of chapter eleven, our book mentions how bebop was marketed and pushed as popular music, but as that began to fail the music industry turned it into an "edgy modern music and comic novelty". Bebop had a very distinct culture movement that followed in its wake. Ironically, given its comeback as a popular word, the members of this1940s counterculture movement were called hipsters.

Slang has always been a big part of the jazz world. Words like cat, swing, gig, chops, even boogie-woogie,   seemed to point out who was "in the know" in the world of jazz. As swing gave way to bebop, the audience changed too. The younger generation was attracted to this strange, new music that was rejected by the mainstream. Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones) said, "At first it [bebop] was strange and the strangeness itself was strangely alluring...A new language a new tongue and vision for a generally more advanced group in our generation...Bebop suggested another mode of being. Another way of living". 

Coupled with bebop's "strangeness" was the musicians themselves. Dizzy Gillespie is attributed to influencing the hipster movements' style with his goatee, horn-rimmed glasses, beret, and zoot suit. Though Dizzy disdained hard drugs, many of the other artists didn't. Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Theodore Navarro,  Dexter Gordon, and many others were addicted to drugs (usually heroin). This influence was seen in the hipster movement just as much as Dizzy's style was. 

Bebop, for some time, became a symbol of rebellion. In 1948, Ross Russell, owner of Dial Records, described this attitude: "Bebop is music of revolt; revolt against big bands, arrangers, vertical harmonies, soggy rhythms, non-playing orchestra leader, Tin Pan Alley -- against commercialized music in general. It reasserts the individuality of the jazz musicians as a creative artist, playing spontaneous and melodic music within the framework of jazz, but with new tools, sounds, and concepts".

With the end of World War II, many people became disillusioned, especially black jazz musicians and those who disagreed with the blatant racism of the time. Bebop and the hipster movement seemed to show that. "Bebop", Michael Brecker said, "was about change, about evolution. It wasn't about standing still and being safe".

Though this mood was prevalent, many jazz musicians have disdained or at least denied any active influence on their part. Lennie Tristano was openly disdainful of the hipster movement saying, "the supercilious attitude and lack of originality of the young hipsters constitute no less a menace to the existence of bebop". Louis Armstrong disliked the very idea of bebop opining that "[Bebop musicians] want to carve everyone else because they're full of malice, and all they want to do is show you up, and any old way will do as long as it's different from the way you played it before. So you get all them weird chords which don't mean nothing, and first people get curious about it just because it's new, but soon they get tired of it because it's really no good and you got no melody to remember and no beat to dance to. So they're all poor again and nobody is working, and that's what that modern malice done for you".

Though some will blame the musicians and some will absolve them, I believe that Dizzy Gillespie said it best: "We didn't go out and make speeches or say, 'Let's play eight bars of protest.' We just played our music and let it go at that. The music proclaimed our identity; it make every statement we truly wanted to make". The hipster movement is an interesting glimpse into the begin of major counterculture movements and how those movements are influenced by music. It seems to be the precursor to the later hippie and beatnik movements.

As with all other forms of jazz, bebop seemed to portray the growing feelings of the era. While the Jazz Era had been filled with the glamour of the 1920s and the Swing Era had been filled with the patriotism and optimism of the 1930s, the Bebop Era was unsettled and strange. Bebop was a far cry from the music ten years earlier, but like all jazz music it fits the underlying current of the country perfectly.

Sources:
The Rise of a Jazz Art World by Paul Douglas Lopes
John Coltrane by Bill Cole
To Be, Or Not...To Bop by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Fraser
Jazz by Scott DeVeaux and Gary Giddens
dmep.montereyjazzfestival.org/dmep/spotlight/randy-brecker

Critical Listening #7: Salt Peanuts

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is commonly acknowledged as one of the major forces behind the bebop movement. Gillespie was a talented trumpeter who worked with Charlie Parker (generally considered one of the most gifted alto saxophonists in jazz history). This piece, entitled "Salt Peanuts" is a quirky tune written by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942. This recording is by Dizzy Gillespie and His All-Stars and was made on May 11, 1945 in New York City for Guild Records. It features Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Charlie Parker on alto sax, Al Haig on piano, Curley Russell on bass, and Sid Catlett on drums. 

8 bar drum intro

8 bar band intro

8 bar A

8 bar A 

8 bar B 

8 bar A 

8 bar C?

8 bar A by Parker (vocals by Dizzy)

8 bar A by Parker (vocals by Dizzy) 

8 bar solo over B by Parker

8 bar A by Parker (vocals by Dizzy)

8 bar (1 chorus) piano solo

8 bar C?

32 bar (4 chorus) piano solo

32 bar (4 chorus) alto solo

8 bar call and response between trumpet and alto

32 bar (4 chorus) trumpet solo

24 bar (3 chorus) drum solo

8 bar ending (same as band intro) 

This tune is clearly a bebop piece. It is very easy to see the differences between this song and pieces from the swing era. For one the tempo is even faster than a swing tune and the tune doesn't really seem to imply that you should be dancing although it does make you want to move. The melodies are also extremely angular and don't swing in the way we're used to. This tune does retain the typical 8 bar phrases and is AABA. It also has a very heavy four beat feel. 

Every member of this band except the bassist takes a solo at some point. Charlie Parker first solos over the B part of the second chorus. He later takes a 4 chorus solo. Both of these solos are marvelous. Parker brings his warm tone on the alto sax to an otherwise angular and almost harsh piece. But with his excellent feeling for time and ability to play at a high speed, Parker never once drops the energy of the piece. Because of the almost perpetual fast notes, the few longer notes Parker plays have so much more feeling than they would have otherwise. For me, this solo exemplifies the saying, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast". Parker may play a lot of notes but each one of them is given the proper attention. 

Dizzy Gillespie also takes a four chorus solo. His solo is much more "in your face" than Parker's. Like Parker, Dizzy plays at an impressive speed with a finesse that is remarkable. His sound is much more "brassy" and therefore comes off as harder than Parker's. He also has a tendency to sit on long, high notes even though they are sometimes dissonant to the underlying chords. This causes a tension in the music that carries over into the drum solo. 

Sid Catlett's solo is all about energy. It's all about hitting as much and as hard as possible. He uses a series of rim taps and even for about half a chorus falls back into just keeping time. This solo pushes the song towards its end and keeps it driving hard the entire time. 

Al Haig plays an 8 bar solo and then later plays a 4 chorus solo. His 8 bar solo is almost just a rhythm case showcase as Haig doesn't really elaborate beyond the chords of the piece. However, in his 4 chorus solo he expands the harmony of the chords. In typical bebop fashion, his left hand is rather sparse. We can hear it clearly near the end of his solo, but he never really plays more than the chord progression in the left hand. His right hand performs a series of runs and riffs at the same speed as the other soloists, although Haig uses syncopation very strongly so his riffs are not as never-ending as Parker's seem to be. 

This tune showcases some important bebop features. The rhythm section is much more audible (partially because of the small size of the group) and much more active. The bass keeps the walking bass line grooving and the drummer provides interesting hits to set up new choruses. We can hear the pianist comping short, sharp chord progressions under the melody. Interestingly enough, we also hear some call and response between the trumpet and sax. 

"Salt Peanuts" is a great piece to show the contrast between bebop and swing as well as their similarities. 

From Rhythm to Comping

As the 1940s dawned, America was ready for modern jazz or "bebop". The draft had thinned the ranks of the big band and the nation was more somber as a whole. Bebop was more inclined towards listening than dancing so it made sense that it would come to the forefront in this new word torn by a second World War.

The changes that occurred in the entire rhythm section made the changes to jazz piano possible. The bass changed its role from merely a two beat feel to a "walking" four beat feel. The drums began to play crashes on the cymbals and hits on the toms that accented whatever the band or soloist might be doing and also usually set up the head of a tune. The guitar, although it had reached some recognition as a solo instrument, was many times still given the job of playing chords on every beat. Because of these changes, the pianist's left hand was released from it's job of keeping rhythm with techniques such as stride or boogie-woogie piano.

So what would a pianist do with this new found freedom? That depended solely on where bebop wanted to go. Bebop was unique in it's use of the chord progressions rather than the melodies for solos. Because of the importance of being able to hear the chord changes, pianist began doing something referred to as "comping". Comping was a slang term for accompanying. Instead of a busy left hand stride or the like, the pianist would instead play various voicings of the chords that the tune contained. The chords they played were generally short and placed in rhythmically logical places. This left the right hand free to "fill" the spaces in another band member's solo or even solo themselves. Pianists began to accompany themselves not only rhythmically, but harmonically.

Listen to the following pieces, paying careful attention to the pianists. The first piece is Dixie Jass Band One-Step by Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The second piece is Dinah by the Benny Goodman Quartet. The third piece is Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins. The fourth piece is Cherokee by Bud Powell.

The first piece is New Orleans style. One can barely even hear the piano let alone notice anything special about what it is doing. The second piece the piano is a bit more clear with some stride rhythms in the left hand and a short solo over the bridge of one of the choruses. In the third piece we really begin to see bebop piano. Though there are no piano solos or even really any fills, the piano is very clearly comping the chords that Coleman Hawkins is playing is solo over. In the last piece, we see Bud Powell who is considered the quintessential bebop pianist. His left hand comps chords that we barely notice while his right hand plays his ideas with great agility.

The piano's intrinsic ability to change with this new type of jazz, not only allowed it to remain in the heart of jazz but also brought it to the forefront of the jazz community with everyone from swing band leaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington to bebop pianists like Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell.

Critical Listening #6: Pitter Panther Patter

One of the major changes that led into the modern jazz era is the transformation of the rhythm section. There were many pioneers in this realm. Count Basie's rhythm section is always hailed as one of the best rhythm sections that ever was because of their superb balance and communication. There were many others who changed the way rhythm worked. Charlie Christian changed the guitar from merely keeping time to, with the help of an amp, a solo instrument. Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, and Jo Jones were all inspirational and excellent drummers. The roll of the bass was also changed.

The bass had always been relied on for a steady beat that would keep the entire band together. Bass solos were altogether lacking of anything other than a walking bass line. Jimmy Blanton, among others, was integral in revolutionizing the way bass was played. The following piece is from a series of duets with Jimmy Blanton on bass and Duke Ellington on piano.

8 bar introduction
8 bar A
8 bar A
8 bar bridge
8 bar A
8 bar B
8 bar B
8 bar bridge
8 bar B
8 bar C
8 bar C
8 bar C
8 bar C
8 bar A
8 bar A'
8 bar bridge
8 bar A

This piece is in standard 32 bar popular tune form (generally AABA) with three different main themes. It has a fairly quick tempo. Obviously the only two instruments are piano and bass. This is more or less a swing piece although it seems different because of the lack of brass and sax sections.

For Duke Ellington this piece isn't anything new stylistically although it's still an interesting listen. Ellington introduces the piece with a series of runs down the keyboard (3 2-bar phrases) after which Blanton walks for two measures and then the A section starts up. Ellington sets up the theme during each of the three main themes making the song easily followed and recognizable. He uses a series of interesting techniques, such as blues notes (on the piano, they're actually half steps as pick up notes) and tremolos.

An interesting thing about the form of this piece is the bridges. Each bridge holds a sort of call and response with Ellington playing the call and Blanton responding.

When we listen to this piece it may not seem like much. After all, we've grown up in a world where the bass has moved beyond being a background noise, but in the early days of jazz the bass's only job was to keep time. Typically they played a broken chord pattern on every beat (referred to as "walking" the bass--you can hear an example of this in the seventh and eighth bars of the piece). With this tune (and much of his other music) Blanton does something completely different.

No longer does he constrict himself to a steady four beat pattern. Blanton makes the bass swing. His fills after each theme and response in the bridges is full of jazz techniques that we would normally identify with any instrument other than the bass. It is an enlightening and exciting moment to see the fundamental change in bass performance.

This little tune isn't much at first glance, but it shows the way jazz was changing especially in the rhythm section as well as in the group size. The evolution of the bass player's job in a band would make the small ensembles of modern jazz more interesting and diverse while still keeping them small.