Bars 34–37. In bar 34, the pianist’s adoption of the soloist’s concluding pitch for the upper voice of an answering chord inspires the soloist to leap yet higher, before descending through a floating vocalized phrase that lands on a prominent melody pitch. Meanwhile, in bar 35, the pianist and bass player resolve their previous tension by converging on the harmony at a culminating point in the solo. At the same time, the bass player performs a fragment of the soloist’s gesture in near unison, the pianist creates an analogous melodic shape with increasingly simplified comping patterns that match the gesture’s rhythmic quality, and the drummer simplifies his commentary, concluding with distinctive cymbal color. The soloist’s gesture creates a dramatic climax at the approximate point where the composition’s melody reaches its highest peak.
Bars 38–41. The group gradually simplifies its musical texture to provide another contrast. While the soloist plays a vocalized pattern in the middle trumpet register, generating suspense with his longest sustained pitch, the rhythm section follows a familiar accompaniment design. It initially increases, then reduces, the range and complexity of its parts, with the drummer eventually dropping out of the performance. In bar 40, the soloist’s movement to a pitch a tritone away from the chord root prompts the accompanists to adopt a related chord substitution.
Bars 42–46. The music’s mood and rhythmic complexion change radically in bar 43, with four bars remaining before the close of the first chorus. At the end of his phrase, the soloist falls off to a pitch that the pianist adopts for the upper voice of his next chord, altering the conventional harmony chromatically. Against the slower motion of the pianist’s comping figures, the bass player shifts from his typical time-keeping role to perform a syncopated double-pedal figure, which creates increasing tension in relation to the changing harmony of the other parts. Meanwhile, the drummer rejoins the performance, stirring up rhythmic activity with a march-like, predominantly off- beat, straight eighth-note figure, to which the soloist responds with an ascending triplet gesture. The soloist’s ascent, supported by the drummer’s cadential press rolls and the bass player’s shift to a four-beat walking bass line, brings about a convergence of the players’ distinct grooves upon a unified swing groove at the onset of the new chorus.
Bars 47–49 (chorus 2). While the soloist initiates a series of relatively high, call and response phrases, the rhythm section, in bar 47, releases the tension created by the bass player’s previous double pedal by converging on the same chord substitution. Subsequently, it remains close to the conventional progression, altering the quality of one chord and inserting another into the progression. At the same time, the accompanists build tension through a climbing bass line, an increasingly active drum part, and a burst of rhythmically dense piano punches with markedly expanded registral placement.
Bars 50–56. Spurred on by the bass player’s upper register excursion and the drummer’s intensified fills, the soloist makes one last striking ascent, delivering, for the final climax, two vocal cries reinforced by the pianist’s comping patterns, then descending. The accompanists answer the soloist’s descent with powerful drum fills, a rhythmically embellished bass line, and high, hard-biting, six- and seven-note piano voicings. The soloist concludes his improvisation with an affective phrase, as much sung or spoken as performed, while the rhythm section reduces its activity to prepare the way for the next soloist.
Example 13.26 Miles Davis Quintet large score segment: “Blues by Five”; Miles Davis, trumpet; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; “Philly” Joe Jones, drum set
General solo accompaniment characteristics. Complementing the soloist’s strategy of resting in the last bar of each chorus to highlight the blues form, the rhythm section increases its activity during the final cadence of each chorus. Typically, in various combined maneuvers, the drummer plays distinctive fills, the pianist switches to denser or more sustained rhythmic patterns and increases his harmonic embellishment of the progression, and the bass player changes the direction of his melodic gestures, for example, reducing range to ascend from the tonic on the downbeat of the new chorus. Over their accompaniment’s course, the players ornament or transform particular segments of the conventional progression with a number of recurring chord substitutions. In bars 2 and 5-6 of the basic blues form, they sometimes insert an E07 chord between the E7 and B7 chords; in bars 11-12, they insert E7 and E07 chords before the B7 chord. For further variety, they change the B7 chord to a BM7 chord or replace it with a Dm7 chord. Such operations periodically create a prominent step progression, E-E-F, in the bass player’s line or in one of the voices of the pianist’s part. In bars 8-9 of the basic blues form, they occasionally replace the conventional G7-to-Cm7 movement with a Dm7-to-Dm7-to-Cm7 movement, which, in some instances, creates a prominent step progression, F-F-E, in the upper voice of the pianist’s part. In bar 9, they sometimes add a tritone chord substitution.
Bars 1–24 (head). Featuring relatively high voicings, the pianist doubles the melody in octaves with open fifth or sixth intervals in the right hand, and in the left hand outlines a seventh, frequently omitting the chord root in the bass. The parallel movement of the pianist’s hands generates distinctive, dissonant harmonic colors throughout. Meanwhile, the bass player follows the convention of root performance on the downbeats of chord changes in bars 1-4. Subsequently, he fashions a harmonically adventurous bass line by emphasizing fifths on downbeats, before returning to his former practice to initiate the new chorus in bar 13. Supporting the thickly textured block chord melody rendition, the drummer performs emphatic melodic-rhythmic drum fills whose kicks reinforce the melody’s accents and whose component shapes selectively and occasionally add punctuation between melody figures. He combines these strategies with the performance of ostinato time-keeping patterns, which he varies in conjunction with drum kicks, frequently producing syncopation in the cymbal part. In bars 1-4, he diversifies his performance with rests, different hi-hat colors, and the change from hi-hat to ride cymbal. At the head’s close in bar 24, the drummer sets up the solo with strong on-beat accents, inspiring the soloist’s initial on-beat quarter- note motive.
Bars 25–36 (solo chorus 1). With the onset of the solo, the pianist lowers the registral placement of his chord voicings, and the drummer gradually reduces the rhythmic density of his activity. Together, they create a series of interlocking punches in bars 25-29, as the soloist introduces simple ideas of restricted range. Meanwhile, the bass player improvises a highly melodic counterpart climbing into the upper register, as if exchanging roles with the soloist. Subsequently, the soloist continues to develop simple ideas, and the rhythm section simplifies its accompaniment. The bass player winds down in range, the pianist provides sparer, sustained patterns, and the drummer switches largely to cymbal time-keeping patterns. An interesting exchange of roles occurs in bar 30, when the pianist plays especially low voicings that extend well into the bass’s upper register and the bass player takes increasing harmonic liberties. To mark the end of the chorus in bars 35-36, the pianist plays a harmonized version of a chromatic cadential blues figure, concluding with an accented, sustained piano kick that the drummer punctuates with a subtle fill.
Bars 37–48 (chorus 2). In bar 37, the soloist and drummer exchange on-beat accents. Amid the chorus’s predominantly interlocking scheme of piano and drum punctuations, the drummer increases his activity, developing a high-low, snare-to-bass- drum idea. Meanwhile, the bass player formulates a characteristically varied line, beginning with a three-bar chromatically embellished scalar pattern that he initiates on the tonic in bar 37. Subsequently, he creates vertical one-bar patterns that lead, through unexpected changes of melodic direction and leaps, to the upper bass register, then descend through sequential figures to the tonic on the new chorus downbeat. In bars 43-46, when the piano player and bass player venture into each other’s range again, the latter leaps to a high descending chromatic gesture, initially imitating, then reinforcing, the top voice of the pianist’s c
hords. In bars 47-48, they coordinate their performance of a version of the conventional blues pattern discussed above, variants of which each player has performed alone previously (the bass in bars 33-34 and the piano in bars 35-36, for example). Subtle exchanges between the soloist and the pianist occur in bar 41, where the pianist absorbs the soloist’s accented pitch into the top voice of the subsequent chord, and in bar 46, where the soloist picks up the top voice of the piano chords for a subsequent melodic figure.
Bars 49–60 (chorus 3). When the soloist creates an extended pair of call and response phrases, the pianist and drummer reinforce some of their rhythmic elements with coordinated punches, and they highlight the conclusion of each phrase with imitative on-beat accents. At the same time, the artists engage in harmonic interplay. In bar 50, the pianist and bass player follow the soloist in remaining on the m chord, ignoring the conventional form, and in bar 54, the bass player plays a prominent Eq outside the key, instantly prompting the pianist to insert a complementary chord into the progression. In bars 56-58, the pianist and drummer develop a routine of coordinated punches on the second half of beat four, leading to heightened cadential activity, which the bass player intensifies through his imposing ascent to the high register.
Bars 61–72 (chorus 4). In response to the bass player’s dramatic climb, the soloist begins with the highest pitches of his previous chorus, then, after a few short imitative patterns-when the bass player descends-soars to an extended climactic phrase. Alternating courses of high register exploration is a recurring feature of the two artists’ interplay. During these events, the pianist punctuates the soloist’s phrases sparingly, while responding to the bass player’s persistent performance of a high, dissonant Bq pitch in bars 61-63 by performing related tritone substitution chords in bars 63-64. Subsequently, the pianist and drummer coordinate their punches. The soloist changes strategies in bar 68, initiating a lyrical phrase whose rhythmic features the drummer accents selectively, in part with syncopated ride cymbal kicks, used sparingly since his melody accompaniment. In response, the soloist works syncopation and off-beat accentuation into his evolving part, which the drummer and pianist reinforce together in bars 69-71. At the same time, the pianist adopts some of the soloist’s pitches for the upper voice of his chords. Meanwhile, the bass player ascends again in bars 68-71, in this instance following and expanding upon the contour of the soloist’s phrase before working his way down through angular constructions to the tonic on the downbeat of the new chorus.
Bars 73–84 (chorus 5). The soloist re-creates the climactic peak of the previous chorus, then gradually descends, while the bass player climbs upward through an elongated version of the conventional blues pattern discussed earlier, setting up the piano’s complementary chord insertion in bar 74. Developing a punctuating routine at the onset of the chorus, the drummer accents beat four with the bass drum and the pianist accents the second half of beat four. Subsequently, the drummer switches to snare drum kicks on the second half of beat four, which the pianist reinforces over the next several bars. The band members deepen their melodic-harmonic interplay in bar 78, as the bass player predicts, and performs in near unison, the soloist’s initial phrase component. Shortly after, the pianist takes up the concluding pitch of the soloist’s phrase for the upper voice of a substitute chord, initiating a descending progression whose top line the bass player fashions into a variant for his bass part and whose final upper voice the soloist adopts for the start of his next phrase. In bar 83, the soloist concludes with a repeated tonic reference to the solo’s opening motive, and the pianist answers him by developing the idea in the upper voice of his chords.
Bars 85–96 (chorus 6). As the soloist develops short figures of restricted range that reiterate the blue third of the key, the pianist and bass player instantly absorb the pitch into their parts in bar 86, the pianist continuing its performance over the next few bars. At the same time, the pianist and drummer generate tremendous swing through a coordinated routine of beat-four eighth-note punches that answer the repeated eighth- note component of the soloist’s motive. In bar 89, percussive piano punches penetrate well into the bass’s range. Subsequently, in bars 90-91 and 93-94, the bass player sets up the common blues figure for interaction with the pianist, who, in the latter instance, rephrases and harmonizes it with an eighth-note pick-up in the lowest voice of his chords. The conversation among the players intensifies as the soloist immediately adopts the pick-up to create a variation on his own previous phrase ending. Then, in bars 95-96, the pianist creates a cadential phrase that masterfully combines a variant of the bass player’s previous blues figure (in the middle voice of the piano chords) with the rhythm of the soloist’s phrase and its emphasis on the tonic (in the outer voices of the piano chords).
Bars 97–108 (chorus 7). The soloist returns to short call and response patterns with an off-beat and backbeat emphasis, initially prompting the drummer to respond with a fill and syncopated cymbal kicks, whose off-beat accentuation the pianist imitates, then reinforces in bar 98. In the next bar, the two accompanists accentuate the soloist’s concluding pitch, the pianist adding emphasis with a dissonant chord substitution. In bar 100, the soloist sustains a syncopated pitch a tritone away from the conventional chord root, which the pianist reinforces with a related substitution. Subsequently, while the pianist and drummer provide predominantly interlocking punches, the soloist ornaments a figure with a prominent grace note, which elicits a comparable emphatic response from the bass player two bars later. When the soloist closes the chorus with short imitative gestures in bars 105 and 108, the drummer answers each with a fill.
Bars 109–20 (chorus 8). At the start of his last chorus, the soloist creates an extended swinging line, and the pianist and drummer gradually increase their coordinated punches. At the same time, in bars 111-12, the pianist imitates the soloist’s descending pitches in the top line of his chords and, on the last beat, predicts the soloist’s precise figure. Next, the soloist rests, then seizes the upper voice of the intervening chords for his vocal cry, which he sustains against the changing harmony before concluding it with a blue-third quarter-note figure. In response, the pianist plays a related tritone chord substitution, and when the soloist ascends again, the pianist adds momentary tension with a comparable substitution. Working his way down from the peak of his phrase, the soloist makes reference to the solo’s opening motive in bar 119. Then he extends the phrase with a variant of the composition’s melody, whose initial pitch the pianist adopts for the top voice of his next chord. To highlight the end of the solo, the soloist sustains a suspenseful dissonant pitch, which the pianist absorbs into his chord voicing, the bass player probes his instrument’s high register, and the drummer plays a forceful distinctive fill.
APPENDIX A: HOUSE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION 57
Whereas, jazz has achieved preeminence throughout the world as an indigenous American music and art form, bringing to this country and the world a uniquely American musical synthesis and culture through the African-American experience and—
(1) makes evident to the world an outstanding artistic model of individual expression and democratic cooperation within the creative process, thus fulfilling the highest ideals and aspirations of our republic,
(2) is a unifying force, bridging cultural, religious, ethnic and age differences in our diverse society,
(3) is a true music of the people, finding its inspiration in the cultures and most personal experiences of the diverse peoples that constitute our Nation,
(4) has evolved into a multifaceted art form which continues to birth and nurture new stylistic idioms and cultural fusions,
(5) has had a historic, pervasive, and continuing influence on other genres of music both here and abroad, and
(6) has become a true international language adopted by musicians around the world as a music best able to express contemporary realities from a personal perspective and
Whereas, this great American musical art form has not yet been
properly recognized nor accorded the institutional status commensurate with its value and importance;
Whereas, it is important for the youth of America to recognize and understand jazz as a significant part of their cultural and intellectual heritage;
Whereas, in as much as there exists no effective national infrastructure to support and to preserve jazz;
Whereas, documentation and archival support required by such a great art form has yet to be systematically applied to the jazz field; and
Whereas, it is in the best interest of the national welfare and all of our citizens to preserve and celebrate this unique art form: Now, therefore be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that it is the sense of the Congress that Jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.
Proposed by Congressman John Conyers Jr., 1st District/Michigan: March 3, 1987
Thinking in Jazz Page 83