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.

Bebop!

From the advent of jazz, the piano had a crucial, yet ever-changing, role. In the beginning, the piano player was only there to keep rhythm and chord changes. This is seen easily from the piano players in New Orleans jazz bands. Ragtime showed that the piano had certain traits that could be integrated into jazz in a more interesting way. Stride allowed the piano to continue its important jobs in the rhythm section as well as become a solo instrument. Stride also provided a new type of driving force behind piano playing. Though stride in its original form would eventually fade from the limelight, portions of stride are still found in jazz piano today. Many great pianists before and in the Swing Era led their own bands or solo careers that cemented the place of a piano in a jazz band. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Luckey Roberts, and many others had pushed the piano to its limits and shown the country exactly what they could do.

All of these different discoveries and styles of playing would become intrinsically important as the Swing Era ended. After World War II came to an end, America changed and, as America's music, it was natural that jazz would change as well. The end of World War II had been accompanied by a great sense of American pride and victory, but that would soon change. Clashes with communist Russia, the possible infiltration of all levels of American society by those communists, and the ever more clear racial inequalities would cause this new America to be full of struggles and confusion and the new jazz form showed that. This new jazz was called bebop.

Bebop was (and still is) very different from the jazz that came before it. Instead of big bands, small groups were formed. Jazz was no longer a music meant for dancing, nor did it have that same comforting swing beat. Bebop was generally not based on popular tunes which was another big change. Bebop was more hard driving with fast tempos and abstract ideas. Harmonies were more complex and riffs less easy to follow.

The piano was suited for this new type of music. The ability of a pianist to see their entire instrument and most pianists natural grasp of their instrument in strange keys or rhythms made bebop a natural progression. Thelonious Monk once said, "Where is jazz going? I don't know. Maybe it's going to hell. You can't make anything go anywhere. It just happens". Bebop seems to personify this idea--that the music had reached the top of an art (in regards to swing) and needed somewhere else to go.

Bebop would be the answer to the question, "Where is jazz going?". It's easy to trace its coming in hindsight. Ragtime and stride took the technique of different ideas in either hand of the pianist to a new level. Count Basie taught us about space and time, while Duke Ellington educated us on things like "jungle music". Art Tatum would prove to be extremely influential with his showy runs and quick fingers. Though the older generation would not accept bebop as readily as it had accepted swing, bebop was there to stay.

Critical Listening #5: Everybody Wants to be a Cat

Jazz is an extremely pervasive music in our culture even though the Jazz and Swing Eras ended decades ago. This song is from the Disney movie "The Aristocats". Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmQe_tFEvz0&feature=related

starting at 1:10
8 bar A
8 bar B
8 bar A
8 bar B
8 bar A
4 bar drum fill
8 bar trumpet solo
....

This is an interesting piece. If we start at time 1:10, it's a 32-bar popular tune with a duple beat. You can hear a piano, a trumpet, drums, bass, saxophone, trombone, accordion, and some type of xylophone, as well as vocalists. The dialogue makes the beat a bit hard to follow but it follows the same basic 32-bar form.

The song has a very New Orleans sounds with an almost polyphony sound during the trumpet solo. It also includes many other types of jazz. Personally, my favorite is the boogie-woogie piano during one of the fills. They also include a sort of jazz ballad with a harp accompaniment.

The solo in this piece is very appropriate for the New Orleans feel, as it is simply a variation on the main themes of the song. The rhythm section keeps things swinging (one could even say groovy) and the instrumentation gives it that New Orleans/marching band feel.

The lyrics of this song make it interesting as well. It shows a great deal about the culture of jazz. they include scat singing which is very typical of jazz vocalists. The use of words like swing, square, dig, gig, and modulate show the writer's understanding of the jazz terminology. The best word they use is simply the word "cat". In this song it becomes a play on words since Louis Armstrong first referred to people as "cats".

The characters of this jazz band also show the diversity of jazz. You have a clearly Oriental cat, a Russian cat, as well as other very distinct and colorful cats.

This song shows an awful lot about the culture of jazz and how we both perceive it and choose to portray it. Jazz has become so ingrained into our media and entertainment that we barely even notice it's there, but we never fail to enjoy it.