Example 8.25 Chorus designs for solos
a. Break and first chorus
Miles Davis solo, “Bye Bye, Blackbird”
Davis tells his story through unfolding, lyrical ideas that epitomize the spare, elegant improvisation style he cultivated between the late forties and early sixties. Adopting a moderate tempo for the performance and emphasizing quarter-note and longer rhythmic values in his formulations, Davis maintains a strong feeling of swing throughout. He uses space liberally, providing substantial rests between phrases and concluding phrases with sustained pitches. The performance excerpt begins with the last four bars of Davis’s melody rendition. As the rhythm section approaches its break (suspended performance), Davis creates a striking segue to his solo by ascending the chord extensions to a high sustained pitch, then creating a sharp syncopated descent. Both components of the arch-like opening gesture establish characters or thematic material for the tale to come. Davis initiates the solo chorus in bars 1–2, for example, by extracting and rephrasing a fragment of the preceding pattern, then varying and developing it as a sequence. After resting and sustaining a low chord tone, he descends to the new chord, then, in bars 7–9, develops, through rephrasing and repetition, an ascending gesture that is an inversion of a component of the previous gesture. Subsequently, Davis plays a variant of the arch-like opening phrase, then generates tension by repeating an ornamented figure that anticipates the forthcoming chord change by two measures. In bars 17–20, he formulates distinctive call and response patterns whose overriding gesture recalls the descent of the opening phrase.
During the first twenty bars, Davis largely develops his idea from phrase to phrase, as if conversing with himself. At the same time, his figures periodically include im-portant melody pitches (bars 1–2,4, for example), correspondences that can be interpreted as a subtle conversation with the composition’s melody or with chords sharing common tones with the melody. In bars 21–22, however, Davis performs a pronounced variation on the melody. Then, abandoning the strategy, he offers intense personal commentary through a distinctive burst of sixteenth notes. Highlighted by the surrounding rests and in marked contrast to the performance’s conservative rhythmic nature, the figure represents a dramatic peak, as Davis leaves the bridge and approaches the last eight bars of the first chorus. From this point on, the story takes new turns while, at the same time, evoking earlier musical characters. In bars 25–28, Davis formulates the chorus’s most elaborate unbroken phrase by leading, through an expansion of a familiar arpeggiation, to a new gesture whose peaks form an ascending chromatic step progression, then extending it with a rephrased melody quotation. He concludes the chorus by rephrasing and extending the melody pitches as in his opening phrase, then creating lyrical shapes reminiscent of his triadic formulations in bars 7–8. Limiting the store of materials with which he fashions the solo, Davis constantly generates interrelated ideas that display unique qualities. Within the framework of his simple storytelling style, nuances like the use of grace notes and sixteenth-note embellishments stand out prominently and reflect back on comparable expressions, contributing continuity to the tale.
b. First and second choruses
John Coltrane solo. “Softly. as in a Morning Sunrise”
Exploiting the fast tempo of the performance, Coltrane conveys a sense of urgency throughout his solo by emphasizing eighth-note formulations. His modal emphasis also characterizes the tale, demonstrating, like many of his sixties solos, the rich possibilities for fashioning ideas from restricted tonal material, in this instance based on the intervallic structure of the Dorian mode. Initiating the solo with three phrases reminiscent of blues storytelling technique, Coltrane introduces a two-part idea, varies it, then, in bars 5–7, provides contrasting material, which he develops sequentially. He contributes cohesion to the rapidly evolving tale and highlights the piece’s form by beginning and ending the initial A section on the tonic and resting in bar 8. The first section’s unfolding material reveals other rhetorical strategies as well. Coltrane often uses a particular rhythmic target, in this instance the third beat of the measure, for ending successive phrases, and he underscores their final pitches with special articulation devices. He also commonly formulates consecutive phrases (sometimes patterned on the contour of the first) that gradually increase in length and/or range, before resolving their tension through the opposite procedures. Coltrane applies the strategies throughout bars 9–16, concluding the second A section with a low chord root that recalls his phrase ending in bar 7.
The B section opens with a variant of the solo’s second phrase that, in bar 17, creates the peak of the established solo. With this gesture, Coltrane prepares for the culmination of the first chorus: high sustained vocal cries in bars 19–20 that present the first prominent dissonance outside the mode. After treating the cry as a short sequence, he leads away from, then back to the cry through a twisting, dissonant line. Subsequently, in bar 23, he reduces the tale’s tension through a short motive whose extension climbs down in range and ends on the familiar beat-three rhythmic target. The next phrase adopts the same target. In bars 29–32, Coltrane completes the chorus with a richly animated, ascending eighth–note figure that leads into a suspenseful syncopated riffing pattern overlapping the next chorus boundary. Over the first chorus, he sometimes applies his methods at different structural levels. Just as he marks off the first A section by beginning and ending ideas with the tonic, he marks off the larger chorus with the same design. Within the framework of the second A section, he creates a dramatic peak three–quarters of the way through the structure by improvising the highest and longest phrase thus far (bars 12–15). Similarly, he creates a climax approximately three-quarters of the way through the larger chorus structure (in the B section) by improvising vocal cries amid the highest and longest phrases of the chorus.
In the second chorus, Coltrane generates new phrases that follow the general strategies of the first. Beginning with short phrases of limited range, he gradually extends them in both respects, then reverses the procedure. Whereas the third beat of the measure serves as a common rhythmic target in the first chorus, Coltrane initially shifts the target to the fourth beat in the second chorus (bars 33–36), before returning to his original scheme (bars 39, 41, for example). At the chorus’s close, Coltrane creates the greatest climax of the evolving solo with an extended performance of searing vocal cries that reach high before returning to high C, framing his second chorus with a return to a tonic.
Contributing cohesion to the solo are recurring fragments of two eighth notes and a quarter note, a short figure and its variant serving as the response to longer improvisations (bars 26–27, 56–57), and specific gestures like wide leaps that answer one another as the cadential components of successive phrases (bars 45–46). Coltrane also establishes continuity at times by beginning and ending a phrase with the same pitch, then repeating it to initiate the following phrase (bars 3–4, 10–11). Providing variety in the context of Coltrane’s predominantly modal solo are varied articulation, ornamentation, and timbral alteration devices. Also diversifying the performance are fleeting references to pitches outside the mode, typically to pitches A and B as if suggesting movement to an altered version of the piece’s dominant chord (G7). One shift in Coltrane’s approach to phrase construction contributes to the solo’s development and intensification. After conforming to the composition’s harmonic phrase structure in the repeated A sections of the initial chorus (bars 1–16), Coltrane subsequently creates phrases that routinely span the composition’s formal sections. Although Coltrane does not appear to playoff of the melody by quoting or varying its precise phrases, there are various points at which he begins or ends phrases with prominent melody pitches (see large score segment, ex. 13.24), reflecting, perhaps, a subtle conversation with the melody or with common tones shared by the mode and the melody.
c. Complete three-chorus solo Booker Little solo, “W. K. Blues”
Little begins his tale with a s
hort motive that he may have absorbed from the repeating, double eighth-note component of the composition’s simple riff melody, or perhaps from the vocabulary of Clifford Brown, who influenced his style (see ex. 8.13). Throughout the first chorus, Little repeats, displaces, and varies the figure, at times applying different pitches to its rhythmic template (bars 1–2, 5), and at other times approaching the motive through improvised introductory figures (bars 3–4, 6–7). In bars 8–11, he provides contrast by creating the solo’s first extended phrase, whose sequential and rhythmic expansion of the motive brings the chorus to a logical close. At the same time, he generates suspense by concluding with the ninth of the chord and a substantial rest.
Balancing elements of surprise and continuity in bars 12–13, Little, for the first time, begins an idea on the fourth beat of the measure and leads it over the bounds of the new chorus into a slight variant of the solo’s initial motive. In bars 14–18, he answers himself by repeating the previous gesture, then transforming it with a mordent that initiates a long phrase extension. In bars 16–17, the extension includes interesting new shapes, such as a whole-tone scale fragment, and dissonant harmonic effects that ultimately resolve to a sustained chord tone in bar 18. With this passage, Little develops his story in numerous ways. Beyond the exploitation of harmonic dissonance, he increases the length of the phrase over earlier phrases and gradually expands the range of his ideas at the high and low end. Moreover, the solo’s short pecking, dancelike motive gives way to lyrical ideas. From this point on, the tale evolves dramatically. In bars 19–21, Little generates excitement by shifting into double time with a burst of rhythmic energy, then markedly expands the solo’s range. In bar 22, after climbing an octave through scalar patterns and leaps, he produces tension through a slightly dissonant off-beat descent. In bar 24, he begins his next phrase on the fourth beat and spans the chorus boundary, as he did at the conclusion of the first chorus.
In chorus 3, Little intensifies his exploration of ideas in the high trumpet register, ascending to the peak of the solo and improvising a segue to a restatement, in bars 26–27, of the preceding phrase’s cadential component. Then he responds immediately with a short interjection, whose rapid rhythm and close intervals create the impression of speechlike commentary. In bars 28–29, Little begins a gradual descent through a phrase comprising, in part, an octave-transposed and contracted variant of an earlier figure in the story (bars 15–17). Subsequently, in bars 30–31, he answers his variant phrase by reworking elements extracted from its cadential component and extending them. Finally, Little ends his tale with a striking gesture, the longest in the solo, which is an elaboration and extension of the closing passage of the previous chorus (bars 22–24). He makes his way back to the upper regions of his range, heightens harmonic tension by playing blues dissonance in relation to the prevailing harmony in bars 33–34, then reduces the tension through a descending line, embellished with lively rhythmic motion and chromaticism. Having produced such dynamism and variety over the performance, Little concludes his solo definitively with its lowest sustained pitch, the tonic of the piece. Minor recurring characters contributing continuity to Little’s tale include a triplet upper mordent and its variants.
d. Complete eight-chorus solo Miles Davis solo, “Blues by Five”
Davis’s performance provides a model of storytelling method applied over multiple passes through the same harmonic structure. While developing ideas organically from phrase to phrase, he reaffirms the larger blues design by resting during the last measure of nearly every chorus. This strategy creates dramatic tension and, ultimately, frames each chorus’s ideas as a discrete episode in the tale. Moreover, it allows him time to consider possibilities for each subsequent chorus. The opening character of the solo, a repeating quarter-note figure, is one of Davis’s simplest vocabulary patterns. Although it is a neutral idea, in relation to which many following phrases would work well, Davis chooses to develop it through a simple variation procedure, displacing the figure and approaching it through a short introductory figure. Throughout the solo, characters comprising on-beat quarter-note groupings of two or three repeated pitches, and variants compressing or expanding the original motive’s rhythmic values, continually reappear, reflecting back on each other.
Davis’s initial formulation of short call and response phrases also represents a general rhetorical strategy for the story’s construction, setting up expectations that new ideas will be followed by ideas roughly equivalent in length and shape. Initially conforming to the plan, the solo assumes a lively breathing quality, as short imitative pairs of phrases in choruses 1 and 2 give rise to a pair of longer imitative patterns in chorus 3, before returning to short pairs again at the opening of chorus 4. Sometimes Davis works subtle references to the composition’s melody into this scheme. He initiates chorus 2 with an emphasis on rhythmically displaced pitches that occur in the melody three bars earlier. Subsequently, at the beginning of chorus 3, he rephrases and extends melody pitches found in corresponding positions within the piece’s form, then develops the idea according to the conventional AA’B blues design.
In chorus 4, the solo takes an unexpected twist when, after four short, imitative phrases of restricted range, Davis performs an expansive gesture, ascending through a stack of thirds to the highest pitch in the solo thus far and creating an initial climax. Davis then descends through the first chromatically embellished scalar gesture. Continuing to introduce new ideas into the story, he answers the descent with the first ascending scalar figure, followed by a lyrical pattern whose short imitative cadential components in bars 70–71 return to the solo’s earlier rhetorical strategy for developing ideas. One of the subtle ways in which Davis creates variety over the first four choruses is by initiating the idea for each chorus on a different beat.
Chorus 5 builds upon the climactic gesture of the previous chorus by beginning in the high trumpet register and reworking a comparable idea. Richly animated, the figure includes a common Davis signature pattern in bars 75–76, a chromatically embellished descending step progression. After concluding the idea with a highly vocalized gesture, he rests, then creates a figure spanning the form’s sixth and seventh bars, unique phrasing within the evolving solo. The chorus ends with a variant of the concluding figure in chorus 3 (bars 57–59), the variant’s repeated pitch recalling the opening motive of the solo. Over the first five choruses, Davis displays his compositional control through the gradual expansion of the solo’s range and the tendency to increase the size of the pitch set from which he formulates consecutive choruses.
In chorus 6, Davis introduces a sharp contrast into his story by applying his former call and response technique to displaced variants of the solo’s opening motive—developing a pair of short ideas restricted in range and tonal elements. At the same time, the unique syncopated qualities and backbeat emphasis of his passages generate rhythmic tension and an intensified feeling of swing. Additionally, Davis creates variety by riding on the harmonically colorful blue third and by exploiting features of timbral change, microtonal inflection, articulation, and vibrato. The simplicity of the chorus’s figures, with their blue-third and tonic emphasis, recalls comparable creations by early jazz players like Joe Oliver (see ex. 4.1).
Chorus 7 also introduces new material to the tale while recapitulating former elements. Its short opening patterns recall those of chorus 4. Subsequently, in bar 100, Davis initiates an extended line whose expansion of tonal materials leads through chromatically embellished scalar patterns to an imitative set of lyrical figures at the close of the chorus reminiscent of the final gestures of choruses 1 and 2. Davis exercises precise control over the cadential components of his figures in bars 104–7. Initially, he creates tension by playing an open tritone that ends with a dissonant flat-ninth pitch in relation to the conventional progression; he resolves the tension in his answering gesture by playing a perfect fourth that ends with a chord tone.
Chorus 8 contains two of the performance’s longes
t and most elaborate phrases whose running eighth notes, constantly twisting contours, and varied rhythmic stress patterns create a heightened sense of swing. Balanced between the chorus’s extended phrases is the solo’s longest sustained pitch—a distinctive vocal cry—that is dissonant in relation to the changing chords of the conventional blues progression (bars 115–16). The cadential quarter-note component of the cry evokes the blue-third emphasis found in chorus 6 and elsewhere. The solo’s concluding figure, too, resonates with associations. Its harmonic-rhythmic placement and contour is reminiscent of “harmonic synonyms” in comparable positions in choruses 3 and 5. In bar 119, the repeated tonic also recalls the solo’s opening motive. Davis follows it with a precise variation on the melody, thereby tying his own personal tale to the original story line and creating a sense of closure, as he turns over the performance to the next soloist. In a final surprise, Davis ends his variant with a suspenseful sustained pitch, a tritone away from the chord’s root, during the first measure of the new chorus.
Example 9.1 Figure in different linear settings
both transcr. Aebersold and Slone
Thinking in Jazz Page 78