Ben Webster recorded his version in 1957 with Peterson's Quartet (with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Stan Levey), in a challenging key of E (F# for tenor). Despite this, he flows through the song with absolute mastery, emphasizing the original melody in both of his choruses, finally modulating half step up in the last A of the 2nd chorus,to finish the song in concert F, with a simple, but the more emotional cadenza.
In this simple song, Ben Webster manages to create a highly emotional atmosphere of lament - you can hear him crying, "Where Are You"...
This song can be found on Soulville (October 15, 1957), recorded on Verve label. It is one of the songs that you never get tired or listening to...
Lyrics:
Where are you
Where have you gone without me
I thought you cared about me
Where are you
Where's my heart
Where is the dream we started
I can't believe we're parted
Where are you
When we said good-bye love
What had we to gain
When I gave you my love
Was it all in vain
All life through
Must I go on pretending
Where is my happy ending
Where are you
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Jazz - whole life or lifestyle?
From some of my friends, I have found 2 different approaches to being a "jazz man".
First one was the good old "jazz is everything", which proposed that a true jazz man lives what he plays, jazz is the main purpose of his life and he subordinates everything else in his life in order to fully "live jazz".
The other approach was that jazz is only a lifestyle, when you don't really "live jazz", you just take it as a part of your life, but other things are equally important, be it family, sports... anything.
I wonder how it really should be. Bird said "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn", and especially in the earlier years, the musicians really lived what they played, they lived jazz, played gigs at night, jammed until the late morning, then got few hours of sleep and then practiced, or got together (or looked for drugs...) and in the evening, there was another gig and then again and again, every day. But for example, Dizzy, which was another great jazz man, had his family, and his wife Lorraine was really strict when it came to Dizzy being a family man. There was one time, when Bird came to Dizzy's home in the middle of the night and started ringing the bell, asking Diz to come out - he wanted to show him some new things he just composed. He asked Dizzy to write it down, but then Lorraine came and told Diz to shut the door and come back in. He obeyed, apologized to Bird and shut the door before his face. Still, Bird kept playing the song from behind the door and Diz wrote it down. :)
But the point is, that even though Dizzy for sure was a great jazz man, whose life was jazz, he still managed to be a full time family man, had his life together...
These are two views on two of the greatest jazzmen of 1940's and 50's. One lived jazz to the fullest extent possible, living a very unbalanced life, but resulting in his early death (of course, here alcohol and drugs took its toll); the other one lived a more balanced life, staying clean and taking care of other things as well, and managed to become a great musician as well.
I am thinking about this because lately I have been asking myself, whether I could practice and play even more than I do now, as it would in turn make my progress faster. But at the same time, I am feeling that my life is really unbalanced, I spend too much time closed in a room, practicing, transcribing, listening to jazz, talking about jazz - that all means exhausting my mind, and spend too little time exercising, going to the nature, doing sports - that means exhausting my body. And I feel that it doesn't do me good. So I am wondering, what should I do. The greats managed to practice and focus on music with all their time, but that of course took its toll and many of them had very difficult personal lives. Do I want that?
I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle. And that's why today I left my saxophone in its case and I am heading out for a hike!
First one was the good old "jazz is everything", which proposed that a true jazz man lives what he plays, jazz is the main purpose of his life and he subordinates everything else in his life in order to fully "live jazz".
The other approach was that jazz is only a lifestyle, when you don't really "live jazz", you just take it as a part of your life, but other things are equally important, be it family, sports... anything.
I wonder how it really should be. Bird said "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn", and especially in the earlier years, the musicians really lived what they played, they lived jazz, played gigs at night, jammed until the late morning, then got few hours of sleep and then practiced, or got together (or looked for drugs...) and in the evening, there was another gig and then again and again, every day. But for example, Dizzy, which was another great jazz man, had his family, and his wife Lorraine was really strict when it came to Dizzy being a family man. There was one time, when Bird came to Dizzy's home in the middle of the night and started ringing the bell, asking Diz to come out - he wanted to show him some new things he just composed. He asked Dizzy to write it down, but then Lorraine came and told Diz to shut the door and come back in. He obeyed, apologized to Bird and shut the door before his face. Still, Bird kept playing the song from behind the door and Diz wrote it down. :)
But the point is, that even though Dizzy for sure was a great jazz man, whose life was jazz, he still managed to be a full time family man, had his life together...
These are two views on two of the greatest jazzmen of 1940's and 50's. One lived jazz to the fullest extent possible, living a very unbalanced life, but resulting in his early death (of course, here alcohol and drugs took its toll); the other one lived a more balanced life, staying clean and taking care of other things as well, and managed to become a great musician as well.
I am thinking about this because lately I have been asking myself, whether I could practice and play even more than I do now, as it would in turn make my progress faster. But at the same time, I am feeling that my life is really unbalanced, I spend too much time closed in a room, practicing, transcribing, listening to jazz, talking about jazz - that all means exhausting my mind, and spend too little time exercising, going to the nature, doing sports - that means exhausting my body. And I feel that it doesn't do me good. So I am wondering, what should I do. The greats managed to practice and focus on music with all their time, but that of course took its toll and many of them had very difficult personal lives. Do I want that?
I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle. And that's why today I left my saxophone in its case and I am heading out for a hike!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sonny Rollins - The Stopper
Today I was wondering about how guys like Sonny Rollins managed to become such outstanding musicians at such a young age. He'd barely turned 23, when he recorded The Stopper, which shows great technique, and at the same time nice, advanced harmonic-melodic thinking on just a few changes. The continuity, with which he composes the lines, is in my opinion pretty remarkable for his age.
I don't think there were a lot of cats that could play like Sonny "Newk" Rollins in their early 20's.
Sure, there was Bird, Dizzy, Fats, Brownie, Bud Powell, and some others, maybe one or two for each instruments... But hearing Newk's records with Bud Powell when he was not even 19 years old, it makes me wonder... what a great musician he was, and still is.
Thank you Sonny Rollins, for showing the world how much one can achieve when he really loves something and puts his whole "body & soul" into it...
Sonny Rollins - The Stopper (for Bb Tenor)
I don't think there were a lot of cats that could play like Sonny "Newk" Rollins in their early 20's.
Sure, there was Bird, Dizzy, Fats, Brownie, Bud Powell, and some others, maybe one or two for each instruments... But hearing Newk's records with Bud Powell when he was not even 19 years old, it makes me wonder... what a great musician he was, and still is.
Thank you Sonny Rollins, for showing the world how much one can achieve when he really loves something and puts his whole "body & soul" into it...
Sonny Rollins - The Stopper (for Bb Tenor)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Bud Powell's Indiana
I have wanted to know for a long time, what Bud plays in his solo on Indiana. It sounds amazing, but still very simple at the same time. So I finally got into transcribing this solo and here it is! I left out the first and last theme, and the solo is all there!
I transcribed it in concert key, so pianists, feel free to check it out!
Bud Powell - Indiana (concert key)
I transcribed it in concert key, so pianists, feel free to check it out!
Bud Powell - Indiana (concert key)
Monday, June 14, 2010
What is jazz? (my opinion)
Lately I have been noticing more and more bands that label their music as jazz-ish, or they at least use the word in definition of their style.
I cannot say that I approve this, as I don't feel (about many of these bands) that there is really any jazz in their playing.
This made me think about the essential question "What is JAZZ?"
For me, jazz requires two main elements, to be called jazz: improvisation and swing.
Many listeners, but even musicians, call something jazz, and they base their opinion on the fact that there is a certain amount of improvisation in the songs. However, when the music does not apply swing, then in my opinion it cannot be labeled jazz, but rather improvised something (rock,metal,whatever...).
And swing - for me it is even more important than improvisation in defining jazz. Music which does not have the element of swing, even if it uses other elements of jazz, is not jazz. Therefore jazzmetal, jazzrock, fusion, nujazz etc., that means styles that do not use both swing and at least a certain amount of improvisation, should not really be called jazz. I prefer to use terms like "rock (metal,fusion...) that uses some elements of jazz."
I know it might sound like banal hair-picking, but I really think it is a disgrace to jazz to use its name for things that are completely un-jazz.
I love all kinds of jazz. Even if not using lots of improvisation, but THEY HAVE TO SWING.
Let's call things with the right names, ok?
P.S. How do you recognize a (decent) jazz musician? Well, he swings and he can improvise...
I cannot say that I approve this, as I don't feel (about many of these bands) that there is really any jazz in their playing.
This made me think about the essential question "What is JAZZ?"
For me, jazz requires two main elements, to be called jazz: improvisation and swing.
Many listeners, but even musicians, call something jazz, and they base their opinion on the fact that there is a certain amount of improvisation in the songs. However, when the music does not apply swing, then in my opinion it cannot be labeled jazz, but rather improvised something (rock,metal,whatever...).
And swing - for me it is even more important than improvisation in defining jazz. Music which does not have the element of swing, even if it uses other elements of jazz, is not jazz. Therefore jazzmetal, jazzrock, fusion, nujazz etc., that means styles that do not use both swing and at least a certain amount of improvisation, should not really be called jazz. I prefer to use terms like "rock (metal,fusion...) that uses some elements of jazz."
I know it might sound like banal hair-picking, but I really think it is a disgrace to jazz to use its name for things that are completely un-jazz.
I love all kinds of jazz. Even if not using lots of improvisation, but THEY HAVE TO SWING.
Let's call things with the right names, ok?
P.S. How do you recognize a (decent) jazz musician? Well, he swings and he can improvise...
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Bud Powell's Celia for tenor sax!
I transcribed Bud Powell's Celia for tenor, being inspired by the band that consisted of Rollins, Navarro, Powell, Potter and Blakey, in order to allow me to play it on tenor.
And interestingly, the range that Bud Powell uses both in the head and in the solo completely fits the tenor range, so feel free to use this song also in a quartet setting with a tenor horn!
Enjoy!
Sonny Rollins transcriptions
Despite this being my first entry in my new blog, I decided not to bore anyone with any introductions and I get right to the point of my first entry:
Recently I really got into Sonny Rollins, especially his early period, his recordings with Bud Powell, Miles Davis, but also his recordings as a leader, since 1949 through late 1950's.
In addition, I have strained my forearm tendons, so as I cannot play, I did a lot of transcribing to spend my time practicing at least with my head and ears, if not with my fingers.
Therefore I am publishing these transcriptions of Sonny Rollins that I made, hopefully they will be helpful to someone, and I am looking forward to any comments or suggestions!
In the means of working with the transcriptions, I really advise everyone to go through the recording themselves and use the according transcription only as a guidance, to be able to really catch the essence of Rollins' playing.
Sonny Rollins - Denial
Sonny Rollins - Whispering
Sonny Rollins - On A Slow Boat To China
Sonny Rollins - Newk's Fadeaway
Sonny Rollins - Dig
Sonny Rollins - Bouncin' With Bud
All of these (except the last one) can be found on the Complete Prestige Box of Sonny Rollins (Denial, Whispering, Newk's Fadeaway, Dig on CD1; On A Slow Boat To China on CD2). Bouncin' With Bud is from an earlier session from 1949 with Bud Powell, Navarro, Potter and Blakey.
Take care!
Martin
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