Pools

this composition by Don Grolnick has a number of unusual features, hopefully of interest to us as improvisers and composer/arrangers.

• form of the head:  A  A  B  (actually Steps Ahead play  A  A  A  B )

• two different solo sections: Solo Section 1  and Solo Section 2

• melody in the bass (during  A)

• lots of space in the melody (held together by the sustained notes/chords)

• rhythm: based on even quavers (funk groove) plus some crotchet triplets

• rhythm: use of rhythmic stops in second half of Solo Section 1

• harmony: unexpected use of dominant chords with ‘natural 13’ (rather than ‘b13’) resolving to minor – eg C13b9b5  Fm11 rather than C7b13b9  Fm11

• harmony: use of diminished scale (half-whole), also called 8 note dominant, on many of the dominant seventh chords

The melody is challenging harmonically and rhythmically (it would sound great arranged for our line-up). The solo sections are simpler by comparison – this gives the piece a sense of overall balance.

I would have liked to have spent more time on the solo sections in our session – there’s lots to explore here. If you are interested to do some more improvising on this piece then you’ll find various backing tracks in the Dropbox (including a sneakily-edited ‘live’ version which features our very own rhythm section of Alice, Stuart, Nick, Terry and Charlie – great groove playing!)

Next week it’s over to you. There’s loads of lovely material coming in – keep at it, the more the merrier 

Ideally we need copies of your piece (even if it is ‘work in progress’) written out for C treble instruments (piano, guitar, voice) Bb instruments (up a tone) and Eb instruments (up a sixth). Bass clef copies would be nice for the trombones and bass as well.

If you can send me stuff in advance that would be useful (but not essential).

Spring Term – block 2, week 2 (19.04.13*)