Red Garland's solo on "Bye, Bye Blackbird"

Red Garland was one of my first jazz influences. Early high school was spent listening almost nonstop to the albums he recorded with Miles Davis. I’m not sure why I was so drawn to him. I remember that my teacher was the first to introduce me to him, and that my friends and I wore out those albums. I was so enamored with Garland that my AOL username was partly a “tribute” to him. As is the case with much of what I listened to in high school, over time I listened to him less and less - but whenever the mood struck me and I turned on some of those early Miles albums, I couldn’t help but smile and sing along to Garland’s solos.

A previously unreleased set of Garland’s was released a few months ago. I purchased it without pause, excited to hear him play in a live trio setting, towards the end of his career (and his life). It reminded me that I’ve been wanting to formally transcribe and upload his classic solo from “Bye Bye Blackbird,” off of Miles’s ‘Round About Midnight album. I transcribed it a long time ago, but over the years, as my jazz practice fell off and transformed into jazz appreciation, I forgot it - about the solo, and how to play it. Of course, whatever notes I made years ago were lost to the ages.

So I started from scratch. I hadn’t transcribed a jazz solo for a long time and this experience made me realize how much I missed this simple act. It’s an act of creativity, in a way, even if it’s not creative in the sense of making something anew. There’s something special about spending time with a piano, a pencil, some staff paper, and a recording, and blocking out the rest of the world as you listen to a masterful recording, taking what you already know inside and out and putting it on paper.

This solo is such straightforward Garland that it should be in every textbook. The melodic contour is pure medium tempo bebop: we see tritone substitutions, chordal outlines, passing tones and entrapment, ghost notes. The comping left hand plays on the and of beats 2 and 4, a rhythm that can be heard in many Garland solos and when he’s comping behind other players; the anticipation of the beats helps propel the solo forward.

We wouldn’t have a Garland solo if there weren’t a block chord section. Garland’s block chord style is unique but relatively simple. The left hand usually plays rootless voicing of the chord, oftentimes with alterations. The right hand outlines an octave with the middle voice sounding a fifth up from the bottom. This interval often creates tension, because it falls outside of the chordal harmony. As was typical of Miles recordings from this era, Garland only plays half of this chorus before Miles enters in with the out head.

Garland plays a block chord introduction, also included here. It’s a classic intro in the jazz world, and a great starting point for inexperienced musicians to begin creating head arrangements in a combo setting.

The complete transcription can be found on my transcriptions page. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do with this transcription, but I'm glad I worked on it. I hope that people can find a good use for it!

Please do send feedback or corrections!

March 2015 in review

Books read (2):

• Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch
• Lowboy by John Wray

Live performances (15):

• Disgraced final performance at the Lyceum Theatre (3/1/15)
• Keith Jarrett (solo) at Carnegie Hall (3/3/15)
• The Light In the Piazza at Manhattan Marymount College (3/6/15)
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Belasco Theatre (3/10/15)
• In Need of Music: The Songs of Ben Toth - Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series at the Kaplan Penthouse (3/11/15)
• The Heidi Chronicles at the Music Box Theatre (3/12/15)
• Molly Pope Likes Your Status cabaret at the Duplex (3/13/15)
• Into the Woods at the Laura Pels Theatre (3/14/15)
• Lea Salonga in Concert at Town Hall (3/14/15)
• Emerson Sings cabaret at the Laurie Beechman Theatre (3/23/15)
• On the Twentieth Century at the American Airlines Theatre (3/24/15)
• The Visit first preview at the Lyceum Theatre (3/26/15)
• Hand to God at the Booth Theatre (3/28/15)
• Hunchback of Notre-Dame at the Paper Mill Playhouse (3/28/15)
• The Lion final performance at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre (3/29/15)

Other miscellany:

• Music directed Sondheimas at 54 Below on March 21, 2015
• Reviewed Tamar of the River for CastAlbums.org

February 2015 in review

Books read (9):

• Here by Richard McGuire (Read the original comic here) (Post forthcoming)
• Best American Comics 2014 ed. Scott McCloud (Post forthcoming)
• RL Book 1 by Tom Hart (Post forthcoming)
• RL Book 2 by Tom Hart (Post forthcoming)
• Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Post forthcoming)
• The Sculptor by Scott McCloud (Post forthcoming)
• Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan (Post forthcoming)
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July (Post forthcoming)

Live performances (14):

• Ryan Scott Oliver at 54 Below (2/2/15)
• Lady, Be Good! at City Center Encores (2/7/15)
• "So This Is Love," Broadway Barkada's annual Valentine's Day concert, at The Cutting Room, at which I also arranged and performed on one song (2/8/15)
• I Am, I Will, I Do, three readings of a new musical at Shetler Studios, for which I did music prep & copy/engraving work (2/9-10/15)
• Taping of The Late Show with David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theatre (2/11/15)
• San Fermin with the Metropolis Ensemble, at the Appel Room (Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series) (2/12/15)
• John & Jen at the Clurman Theatre (2/13/15)
• Big Love at the Signature Theatre (2/14/15)
• Horseplay: or, The Fickle Mistress, A Protean Picaresque at La Mama (2/14/15)
• Parade in Concert at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center (2/16/15)
• The Iceman Cometh at BAM's Harvey Theatre (2/17/15)
• Novus NY, et al, at Carnegie Hall: Ives's Symphony No. 4,  & Ginastera's Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam, Op. 43, at Carnegie Hall (2/21/15)
• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (2/24/15)
• Constellations at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (2/27/15)

Movies (1):

• The Last Five Years

Other miscellany:

• Transcribed Red Garland's solo on the famous "Bye, Bye Blackbird" recording from 'Round About Midnight
• Arranged and performed, with Steven, Bacharach & David's "A House Is Not A Home"
• Watched season 5 of Downton Abbey
• Celebrated Steven's birthday!
• Ate at some great new (to me!) restaurants in Manhattan & Brooklyn
• Started my long-term sub gig with a NAAP outreach choir in Chinatown

The dress is white and gold.

In memoriam: Clark Terry

Late Saturday evening, word came out that Clark Terry - great jazz musician and educator - passed away. His wife Gwen, who has been keeping the jazz world informed of CT's health for quite a while now, posted a note on Facebook, and word - and tributes - disseminated rapidly.

I wrote about CT last month, after I finished his memoirs. I don't have much more to add to it, other than this is a devastating loss to the jazz and education communities. One we knew was coming, to be sure, but still a loss.

““After that surgery in ‘91, I understood why it was imperative that I should encourage my students. When I was teaching them what I knew as far as playing the music was concerned, it was really about establishing relationships. Of course, it was extremely important to me that they would perpetuate jazz far and wide, but it was mostly about spending time together and listening to what their dreams were. To me, jazz was love. And like the old saying goes, ‘It’s better to give than to receive.’ It worked out well for them and it felt great to me, thinking that I could contribute something to make their dreams come true.””

— Clark Terry, “Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry” p240 (2011)

I never met CT, but his spirit was infectious. I can think of no better way to remember him than by listening to two of his most high-spirited recordings: "Brotherhood of Man," with the Oscar Peterson Trio, and, of course, "Mumbles," from the same album.

Rest in Peace, CT. You brought the world great joy and innumerable knowledge. You live on in your countless recordings and the thousands of people you taught and played with, and who continue to spread the gospel of jazz.

New Bacharach arrangement

I recently wrote an arrangement of Burt Bacharach & Hal David's "A House Is Not A Home," to be performed by Steven Cuevas at Broadway Barkada's annual So This Is Love Valentine's Day concert. I can't remember exactly how we decided that he should sing this song or that I should arrange it; I think it was one of those things where we were talking about it enough that it just became assumed that I would write this song for him.

As is my usual m.o., I procrastinated a lot and didn't finish the song until 2 days before the performance. (In my defense, it was a difficult song for me to get my head and ears around, so it took longer than usual. And I was being lazy.) Between the lateness of this song and all of the other work that Steven was doing as the music director/pianist/arranger for that evening's concert, we decided that I should play piano for him. (Thus marking - can you believe it - the first time I played piano publicly in New York City.)

Below is an excerpt of Steven & I performing the song last week, at the Cutting Room in NYC. We are planning on making a new recording in the very near future, which I will also post here.

I've long felt that this is one of the weirdest - but also prettiest and most heartfelt - of Bacharach's popular songs. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do something different from the other versions out there: Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Glee ... My arrangement ended up being influenced by Lawrence Hobgood's arrangement on Kurt Elling's 1619 Broadway album. My version, though, should be treated more like a lied and less as an opportunity for improvisation or riffing. I usually allow for some liberties in my pop arrangements. That's the style, and the singer and rhythm section should have that flexibility. Here, though, I want things performed as they are. I took care to get the exact rhythms and pitches (and yes - I know they differ from the original melody.) As I mentioned above, the song was tricky for me to figure out. The phrasing is uneven - more than usual as far as Bacharach is concerned - and the melody is odd. The harmonic structure itself isn't that different or difficult, but I wanted to make sure the chord's extensions and substitutions throughout were just right.

The arrangement is available to download. It gets a little high towards the end, after the key change. If you want, I would gladly transpose the song for you. As always, I would enjoy hearing from you if you perform this at some point.