A Night In Tunisia

Many thanks to Buster Birch for providing such a well prepared session in which we covered:

“A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie

To prepare for the performance of “A Night in Tunisia”, Buster got us to stand in a circle and rock slowly from our left to right feet while clapping out a few simple rhythms found in the tune. Once we’d got that under our palms we returned to our instruments with the request to remember the rhythms and not just return to our default settings. Buster provided each musician with a specially written part that combined to produce a fantastic rendition of the tune. When it came to solo, each coop member had two plays through of the form complete with the initial break taken at the end of the previous performers tag section.

Buster also provided us with some analysis of the composition in terms of scales to use. We were also given a transcription of the Charlie Parker break for homework; if I could play anything that fast I’d be a happy person.

Thanks again to Buster for a great session that we all enjoyed immensely.