Critical Listening #13: Dancing Men

From the Swing Era, jazz took many new and drastic courses. Some of these new jazz genres included bebop, cool jazz, and free jazz. Though there were many small groups, there was also a reoccurrence of big bands playing new rhythms sometimes called fusion. This fusion piece is a mix of jazz elements and the heavy repetitive rhythms of rock. It is a Buddy Rich tune called "Dancing Men".

Buddy Rich, born in 1917, grew up playing the drums in the swing era, but also lived long enough to see the changes that jazz experienced. He experimented in many of these areas, playing the drums until his death in 1987.

8 bar drum introduction 

8 bar A 

8 bar B 

8 bar A 

8 bar B 

8 bar C 

8 bar A 

5 8 bar choruses -- sax solo 

8 bar A 

5 8 bar choruses -- bass solo

8 bar B 

4 bar A variation

8 bar B 

10 bar B variation

This song is written in 8 bar phrases with three main themes. The tune is hard-charging and takes a lot of energy to play especially because the first trumpet part is so high. The trumpets are supported by a strong bass line and trombone section. The drummer (Buddy Rich) keeps the energy up by filling the empty spaces and adding cymbal hits to accent certain lines. 

There are two soloists on this piece: saxophone and bass. But first I want to talk about Buddy Rich's drum fills which qualify as a type of mini-solo. Buddy Rich likes to use complex rhythms on the snare drum with hits on the other drums and cymbals. The saxophone solo is five choruses long. The solo seems to me to hint a bit at cool jazz but with an edge. The solo line is very flowing and not too harsh but the saxophonist's style is very upfront with little to no vibrato and a perpetual line of notes that reminds one of Charlie Parker and the bop era. 

The bass player has a five chorus solo right after the sax solo. It is really neat to hear a electric bass solo since they're not very common in early jazz which is what I usually listen to. The bass player plays a funk bass line using interesting rhythms in his solo. He is accompanied by the drummer playing a constant beat on the ride cymbal to keep the rhythm up and the pianist to help make sure we don't lose track of the tops of the choruses. I like this solo because it doesn't hurry at all even with the almost frantic drumming behind it. 

I thought this piece would make a good choice if for no other reason than that we tend to forget that there were still big bands in this time period even though small groups were more common. Buddy Rich throughout his career showed the unique ability to keep growing and changing his style to match and sometimes even surpass the popular music of the day. Though this tune might not be as well-known as "So What" or "Rhythmning", it is no less played in the world of jazz.