Alec

December 20, 2014: Sam Bullard

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Many thanks to Sam Bullard for an interesting session in which we covered:

“Bernie’s Tune” by Bernie Miller
“Reunion” by Gerry Mulligan

“Bernie’s Tune” was taught to us by ear before sheets were handed out. We were also taught a phrase to play over the first two chords that highlighted the transition between the D- and Bb7#11 in the first two chords, using the F melodic minor for the latter.

“Reunion” is a contrafact on “There will never be another you“, the melody to which is almost exclusively diatonic to Eb major. Sam made us all improvise solos using only Eb major which forces you to be more melodic rather than you might otherwise be.

[Full report unavailable, Christmas got in the way]

Many thanks to Sam for and enjoyable session as always.

December 6, 2014: Martin Hathaway

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Many thanks to Martin Hathaway for an engaging session in which we covered:

“Tokyo Blues” by Horace Silver

The first step taken was to put away our music stands and to learn “Tokyo Blues” by ear, first singing it and then playing on our instruments. It’s a relatively simple tune but it is a bit tricky with sections being similar, but everyone got it.

Once that was in place we determined/were given the chords to play the head through. Strategies for improvising against the chords (Db7#11, Cm) were discussed with a few members playing through using solely the Pentatonic/Blues scale.

This mostly worked, but more colour was introduced with the scale we sang by ear against the Db7#11 chord that turned out to be Lydian Dominant (the melodic minor based on the 5th of the Db7). Of course I could be wrong. Some of us were singing whole tone scales.

Martin also gave us a phrase to play over the turn around if we needed it.

The point here was to find a coping strategy (Pentatonic/Blues scale) to get us through the tune and then provide extra interest using the other scale with the use of the lick to allow navigation of the trickier turn around so we can start the tune prepared.

Anyway, we played the head again and we each had a turn at improvising as many choruses as we felt we needed before passing it on.

Throughout the session Martin was stressing the importance of not using real books or ireal-b type applications which take the focus away from the music and the rest of the group and so compromises the ability to communicate successfully with them. Also, through learning by ear you hear the subtle inflections and emphasis and other performance points that you would not get from the real book.

Well, lots to think about. Many thanks to Martin for his enthusiasm in trying to get us to the next level of performance.

November 29, 2014: Nic France

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Many thanks to Nic France for a great session in which we covered:

“Recordame” by Joe Henderson
“Boogie Stop Shuffle” by Charlie Mingus
“A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli

A lot of playing got done in this session, with Nic marshalling the troops to great effect providing us with appropriate bass lines, intros and the like to a great selection of tunes.

Many thanks to Nic for an enjoyable session.

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November 15, 2014: Alex Hutton

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Many thanks to the excellent pianist Alex Hutton who hosted a fun session covering some great Horace Silver compositions:

“Sister Sadie” by Horace Silver
“Gregory is Here” by Horace Silver
“Song for My Father” by Horace Silver

For each of the compositions, Alex went through some possible devices to used in the improvisations. For example “Sister Sadie” consists of long sections of dominant seven chords; convert it into a ii-V to create extra interest, or just consider it as the ii. After playing through the composition and the members soloing over the complete form as will as fours, we focussed on the trickier middle section for a while.

Other tools mentioned to investigate were the use of targetting notes with decorations and enclosures and a few bebop licks.

The composition “Gregory is Here” was written for Horace Silver’s son has an interesting first section alternating between two bars of B7+4 and two bars of Cm7 a couple of times before relaxing into familiar ii-V-i territory. I’d not heard this composition before, but it was quite challenging but enjoyable at the same time. We had a practice on the first section to get used to the unusual chords before doing a complete performance.

Finally a blast through “Song for My Father” completed the sessions.

Lots of playing and some good tips to investigate add up to a great session.

Thanks again to Alex Hutton.

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November 8, 2014: James Brady

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Thanks to James Brady for a philosophical session in which we covered

“Bye Bye Blackbird” by Ray Henderson
“Effortless Mastery” by Kenny Werner
“Don’t Stop the Carnival” by Sonny Rollins

After a brief group discussion on why we play jazz and improvise we played through “Bye Bye Blackbird”, but instead of improvising we just gave a good a rendition of the head as possible. The point of this was to show that it is not necessary to play lots of notes to maintain interest (and that probably we should all play less).

The book “Effortless Mastery” was discussed at some length. Key insights: “if you mess up an improvisation, no-one dies”, “great improvisers make it look easy, because it is easy (to them)” and “only play stuff you have mastered” rather than that new lick that you haven’t and will mess up.

We were given some work-sheets on enclosures and other decorations and this was discussed and examples given:
Cambridge Jazz Co-op 8 11 14 – Full Score Bb
Cambridge Jazz Co-op 8 11 14 – Full Score CONCERT
Cambridge Jazz Co-op 8 11 14 – Full Score Eb

At the end of the session, we speed learned “Don’t Stop the Carnival” and had a quick blast on that.

I think that we would probably have liked to have played a bit more, but it was a thought provoking session. Also, a reminder of how important enclosures are is always a good thing.

Many thanks to James Brady.

P.S. Below is a great Youtube video by Mike Titlebaum that shows how the embellishments can be applied to create complex bebop lines:

November 1, 2014: Mick Foster

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Many thanks to Mick Foster for an unusual session in which we covered:

“(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey” by Hughie Cannon.

Mick first taught us a chord sequence which was later identified as the “Bill Bailey,” which we were then given the lead sheet for.

The importance of being able to take head and interpret it and embellish it was discussed by use various techniques such as grace notes, delay, anticipation, changing note values, fills and enclosures  especially with reference to how a traditional jazz band might treat it.

The co-op members had a chance to try out a bit of interpretation before the roles of the instrumentation of a traditional jazz band was discussed. Particularly the role of the clarinet that would tend to take the role of obbligato tending to provide support melody/arpeggios for the main instrument.

The co-op group was split into smaller groups of three or four each of which took it in turn to give a performance of Bill Bailey in a traditional jazz style.

After the break, free group improvisation was discussed and various games were used to facilitate it. The first game was that everyone would play the shortest note possible on their instrument with the idea that you would play that note when there was space. This created an interesting interaction between everyone where a groove was trying to force its way through but couldn’t quite make it.

A second game was to play a single longest note possible, again playing it when you thought it was appropriate.

A third game was that only three people could play simultaneously using single short or long notes.

Finally, the co-op was split into trios or quartets, each of which performed a piece of free improvisation using any of the rules above. Each group had quite a different feel to them.

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Many thanks to Mick for a different kind of session.

October 25, 2014: Carl Orr

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Many thanks to amazing guitarist Carl Orr for a lively session in which we covered:

“Yardbird Suite” by Charlie Parker
“Beauty and the Beast” by Wayne Shorter

After a quick analysis of the tune, and realising that perhaps it isn’t as straight forward as first thought, Carl lead the group through the chords, first by arpeggiating triads from the root and then up to the seventh. The chords were take sequentially without regard to bar lines so that all chords were treated similarly. A good way of getting the sequence under the fingers.

We then had a couple of plays through the tune at increasing tempos. Carl talked about the use of quotes to increase audience interest in a tune after spotting a quote from one of our members (Martin).  He then suggested we go through the tune an put some quotes in. Carl was particularly tickled when a member quoted the theme tune from “Steptoe and Son.”

After the break we revisited “Beauty and the Beast” which consists of a melodic section (beauty) and a funk section (the beast) based on a dominant chord. The solos take place over the funk section.

I particularly like Carl’s sessions because he keeps the rhythm section under control with only have a single guitar or piano playing at once.

Thanks again to Carl for a great session.

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October 18, 2014: Roger Beaujolais

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Many thanks to Roger for an educational session in which we covered:

“So What” by Miles Davis
“Caravan” by Juan Tizol

In this session Roger wanted to talk about techniques that could be used to handle songs that remain on one chord for a long time. The composition “So What” is 32 bar AABA form with the A section being Dm and the B section Ebm.

The group played through the composition made a bit trickier than usual by the lack of a Bass player.

Roger pointed out an interesting idea of breaking the tune into 4 bar sections and adding tension in the 4th bar of each section by replacing it with the relative dominant 7, in this case A7 and Bb7. This is using the rule that just about any chord can be considered the I and be preceded by it’s V.

These chords raise the tension which is then resolved at the start of the next 4 bar section. The chords can then be altered to further increase the tension.

We could try turning the (say) A7 in to a ii V giving us | Em7 A7 | Dm7  |.  Consider the A7 as a b9 and use the Bb diminished scale.

In the end, you can play just about anything so long as it is melodic or has its own structure and resolves.

We had a few more goes using these techniques. It sounds a lot better when Roger does it.

After the break we had a go at “Caravan”.

Many thanks to Roger for a great session and some good tips.