Up North - Week 10 17-01-24

his is quite an involved melody and a long form - credited to Ballamy, Bates and Bruford, I wonder who wrote which bits!

Here's the personnel listing for Earthworks (taken from wikipedia):

• Bill Bruford - acoustic and electronic drums, percussion, whirled instruments
• Django Bates - keyboards, tenor horn, trumpet
• Iain Ballamy - soprano, alto and tenor saxophones
• Mick Hutton - acoustic bass

• Dave Stewart - co-producer (with Bruford), and credited with "samples, keyboard bass, very occasional additional keyboards".

For those of you who may be interested to work further on this tune remember my comments about simplifying some passages. When I prepare for these sessions I generally try to transcribe as much detail as possible but to show you what I mean I am going to attach a much simpler version (without the harmony line).

The solo section on my handout is actually only part of a much longer sequence (I thought it was enough to get the general idea). The 16 bars I used were perhaps deceptively simple. With a little more time I would have liked to explore the idea (which Terry voiced most passionately) of 'opening up' the feel and the harmony.

The first chord of this solo sequence was notated (in concert) as C min - I would suggest that in this context it should be used as a starting point for embellishment (adding other notes, e.g. Bb or A and D, or maybe B natural) and alteration (i.e. using other chords, e.g. C7#9 or B7 or Cdim perhaps). Conversely, the next chord (in bar 3) notated as G7b13b9 is very specific - I would probably leave this as it is (at least to begin with). On the recording there is very little keyboard at the start of the sax solo. It comes in later with a kind of 'montuno' (Peter did a little of this at one point - excellent, more please!) 

Another way of 'opening up' the harmony might be to use some 4ths voicings (e.g. for Cm using the notes F  Bb  Eb or G  C  F etc - try going 'outside' using the notes F# B E etc).

In our improvising session today I should have picked up on Nick's suggestion and given our chordal players the opportunity to do some comping separately (rather than all three together) - please remind me to organise this next time!

The groove on the recording begins very sparsely with a half time feel (backbeat on 3) and it sounds very electronic to me (electronic drums?) Presumably the various fills are done live by Bruford, over the electronics - what do you think Charlie?

Finally Ash asked about negotiating the 'pushed' chords (always on beat 2 in bars 4, 8 and 16). I guess one approach would be to ignore them, perhaps playing phrases either side so the 'pushed' chord sounds like an interjection (or response). It is also possible to play on these chords but ideally you need to play a well chosen chord tone right on the second beat to make this work - this requires practice :-)

 

Cheers Mark

markbassey.com

Week 9 17-01-14 The Other Side Of Town - Feedback

An opportunity to work on vocal piece. I must apologise for wrongly attributing this song to Julian Joseph rather than Curtis Mayfield. I guess the arrangement is probably by Julian Joseph. Incidentally, I mentioned I had played another Curtis Mayfield song some years ago (with strings, bass clarinet and an oboe … ) - the piece was Don't Worry (if there's hell below, we're all gotta go!) More on this at another time perhaps.

I used this session as a blatant excuse to practise a few modes. For those of you who would like a quick recap here it is:

ionian 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

dorian 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 8

phrygian 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8

lydian 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8

mixolydian 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8

aeolian 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8

locrian 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8

The two scales exploited by Julian Joseph were: first solo dorian, second solo mixolydian. He was able to do this over the repeating bass line (which only uses root, b7 and 5). He also adjusts the voicings in his left hand to fit the two scale choices - see if you can hear this …

I'm sorry we didn't spend longer looking at the chord sequence at B - notice there isn't much in the way of standard cycle of fourths/fifths movement (i.e. up a 4th or down a 5th). How easy is a sequence like this to improvise over?

The melody in this song is hard to write down with all the vocal nuances. It would be a great exercise to try and copy the vocal line straight onto your instrument (never mind trying to notate it). My version is considerably simplified and makes no reference to the other verses (which vary considerably melodically). I thought Annie did a great job singing this melody. She commented on the depth of the lyrics. It is so important for a singer to feel a connection with the words they are singing. Maybe this is important for instrumentalists too. Does anyone remember a scene in the film Round Midnight when Dexter Gordon's character can't remember the words to Autumn In New York and so can't play it?

Next time: Up North.  The melody is tricky (miss a few notes out if you need to). Check out the dom7th(b13,b9) chords in the solo section - altered scale could be good here 1  b2  b3  3  #4  #5  b7  8

Cheers Mark

mark@markbassey.com

Steyning Weekend Workshop

More details of the workshop here.

The Other Side of Town by Curtis Mayfied, coverd by Julian Joseph

"Next session will be on The Other Side Of Town (but still in Shoreham ...) Julian Joseph has two solo spots in this piece, both over the same bass line (pedal D) but he uses a different scale for each. What are the two scales?" Mark.

More about Julian Joseph here.

Just discovered this is a cover of  a Curtis Mayfield tune.

The British Block

We felt that there would be some value in looking at the vibrant jazz scene outside of the US. We could have chosen any of a large number of British originals. Courtney Pine, Graham Collier, Colin Towns, John McLaughlin etc, etc. The four chosen are all interesting in their own right for different reasons and are not necessarily typical examples of the British scene or even that well known.

For example Juilian Joseph is known for his jazz broadcasting but is a prodigious talent as a player. Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing him will attest to that. The Jazz Warriors, which, as you probably know, was the Black London based jazz workshop that produced a table of great talents such as Joseph, Crosby and of course Courtney Pine.

It is also debatable to find a British style. We have such a strong rock tradition, which was itself highly influenced by jazz and blues, that our jazz often has a funkier element to it. Ian Carr very much tried to do this with his band Nucleus in the 70s.

The Ballemy, Brueford, Bates piece is interesting as they were the founder members of Earthworks which really came out of the progressive rock / British jazz scene in the 80s. Bill Brueford, who wrote much of the music came to fame as drummer for Yes and then King Crimson. Technically brilliant the music displays rock and western classical influences and is highly (densely?) composed. Bates and Ballemy were stars of the mainly white big band Loose Tubes that our own Julian Nicholas became a member of. Django Bates is, of course, an eminent and brilliant British composer with a unique sound of his own.

Courtney Pines recent albums have been very influenced by Caribbean music. Younger talents include Fin Peters and Dave Stapleton. Stapleton set up Edition Records which is one of the best contemporary jazz record labels in the UK but Dave is a busy composer too who now produces scores for a number of different environments.

Most of these artists have performed in Brighton at various times. We hope that the workshop tunes, if you are not already familiar with them, will give you a flavour of what is happening in the UK.