Critical Listening #11: Doodlin'

The last track on "Horace Silver and the Jazz Messenger's" is a nice little tune called "Doodlin'". It is a nice hard bop tune that hints at the jazz funk that was developing. It was recorded in 1954. It is this piece I'd like to use as my critical listening. 

The form is simple enough--12 bar blues. 

1 bar piano introduction 

1st chorus (Theme A) 

2nd chorus (Theme A) 

3rd chorus (Theme B) 

4 piano solo

5

6

7 tenor sax solo

8

9 

10 trumpet solo

11

12

13 drums solo

14

15

16th chorus (Theme A) 

17th chorus (Theme A) 

1 bar extra + drum hit 

After the piano introduction, the sax and trumpet play Theme A in unison. It's a neat lick, what most musicians would call a "turn", and it is at odds with the rhythm kept by the bass and drums. It's easy to lose track of the rhythm until the lick lines back up with the rhythm section at the end of every four bar phrase. This theme is repeated in the second chorus exactly. The third chorus introduces a new theme, Theme B. Theme B is very interactive and contains a call and response between the trumpet and sax duet and the piano. Because the piano is so active in the third chorus, a perfect segue into the piano solo is provided. 

The pianist (Horace Silver) solos first. His solo builds builds on the blues scales the chord progression uses. He tends to use lots of repeated licks changing the key of the lick to match the chord progression. Silver's solo never seems to stop but neither is it very fast. With the steady walking bass and drums in the background, Silver's solo seems to hover somewhere between hard bop and cool jazz. His licks hint at hard bop but he is utterly relaxed and confident in his solo. 

The tenor player (Hank Mobley) solos next. His solo definitely seems cool. To me he almost sounds a bit like Paul Desmond though his licks are a bit harder and more defined at times. His solo becomes more solid and hard bop-ish as he progresses and this seems to energize the rhythm section. The drummer plays more hits and the bass pulls harder. Silver starts a boogie-woogie type ostinato in between phrases on Mobley's solo that will continue again in the trumpet solo. 

The trumpet player (Kenny Dorham) enters brash and swinging right from the beginning. He chooses an interesting rhythm that seems to work against the rhythm section and inspires Silver to bring back his boogie-woogie ostinato from Mobley's solo. Dorham works his way into the upper register and seems to me to almost sing the blues with his trumpet. He employs a variety of blues notes and keeps the energy Mobley introduced climbing. 

The drummer (Art Blakey) solos last. His solo is very rhythmic and loud. He plays a on the snare and toms mostly using little to no cymbal hits. He keeps time for most of his solo except for a disconcerting couple measures in the second chorus where he drops time completely (to the listener anyways...it ends up lining up completely) and plays a variety of cymbal hits. At the end of his solo (maybe as a sign to the rest of the band), he plays on the rim of his snare drum. 

The band comes back and plays Theme A twice more and ends with one extra measure that is cut off by a drum hit. The only part of this band not discussed was the bass player. The bassist (Doug Watkins) plays walking bass most of the tune, but it completely captured my attention. He plays with an excellent sense of not only rhythm, but also energy. Many times, I've noticed that bassists playing walking lines at non-challenging tempos seem bored. Watkins, although this piece isn't fast, seems to be absolutely enthralled by the piece and determined to show that in his bass line. That combined with how he and Blakey feed off the energy from the solos makes this piece an exciting listen whether you're a hard bop fan or not.