Transcription: Ed Blackwell — Happy House

UPDATE: Download link is now working! 

Here is Ed Blackwell playing the head of a fairly well known Ornette Colman tune, Happy House, with the band Old and New Dreams. The beginning of the tune is cut off on the recording, so I've only transcribed the second time through the head. The album is Live At Nervi, 1979— I'm not sure if it's a real record, or a bootleg, or what. It doesn't seem to be commercially available, and I got it through one of those bootleg/vinyl rip blogs, which seem to be much of a thing anymore, what with the authorities cracking down on Rapidshare, et al.

The tempo is ~half note = 149. Blackwell is playing three regular tom toms and a couple of bongos here. You could just play the bongo parts on the two high toms on a five piece set, or adapt them however you see fit if you're playing a normal four piece set. Look for some type of mixed sticking on most of the triplets; in measures 16 and 17 they may be played as singles, starting with the left hand.

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Transcription: Ed Blackwell — Guinea

OK, this one is definitely a labor of love— that took way too long to finish and proof. But I've been living with this piece for a good twenty years, and performing it for much of that time, so... whatever. This is Guinea, by the group Old And New Dreams, if you don't know them, a band of former Ornette Coleman sidemen: Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Charlie Haden, with Ed Blackwell on drums. The tune is Guinea, an African-flavored tune in 6/4, by Don Cherry.

The 8th notes are swung for much of the piece, except for a passage where straight 8ths are indicated, where he's making a double time feel. He's using three high tom toms, indicated by black noteheads on the top space, the top line, and the space above the staff. You can also safely ignore most of the hihat part. Rather than trying to play it exactly, I would just use it to get an idea of how he's approaching the feel for the tune overall. Sometimes he suggests a waltz, with the hihat on 2-3/5-6; other times he plays a "4" feel, with the hihat on 2/4/6. Often, though, the hihat is just moving sympathetically with what he's playing with his hands. Rarely is the hihat worked out as part of the coordination— his major ideas are flowing out of the hands, and bass drum.

The lick with the 5s, in measure 63, is simpler than it looks; the second lick starts on the & of 2, and ends on the & of 3. I might use a RLLRRL sticking.

In playing this, I would try not to get bogged down in the few little peculiar things, which, if I've transcibed them correctly, are obviously the product of Blackwell's very special, very practiced thing; like the 16th notes at the beginning of measure 14. Things like that are just the tip of a very large iceberg of stuff that he had been practicing and playing for decades before this. Rather than taking it as a lick to be copied, look at is as a clue about the sorts of things that are in his technical background— what he's been practicing.

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ECM has blocked most of their music from YouTube, and I've been spending way too much time on the computer doing technical BS to have the patience to make my own bootleg video of it, so you'll just have to buy the album, if you don't already have it. It's really essential listening, as important as any other record in my collection.

Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell — 6/8 variations

Here are some more variations on the Afro 6/8 feel, played by Ed Blackwell on the tune Mopti (an old favorite from Flatland days, which I'll be reintroducing to the set on the Europe trip next month), from the Old & New Dreams album Playing. Most of these occur close together during the long intro, but I thought I'd present them as individual grooves, instead of as a transcription:

Also apply the left hand parts— the snare and toms— to the generic Afro bell pattern, and BD/HH parts.

Audio after the break:

Busy

Busy all day doing tour-related junk, and transcribing charts-- Blood by Paul Bley, Priestess by Billy Harper, following Gil Evans's arrangement, and a couple of Don Cherry tunes I used to play in the 90's. If they turn out OK we'll be playing those along with the Ornette Coleman stuff on my little Europe tour in November.

In fact, what the heck, here are our old recordings of Mopti and Guinea, by Don Cherry-- you can buy those if you want:





Man, my playing has really changed. And yet it hasn't. Oh, and in keeping with the 6/8 theme, you should cruise over to Four on the Floor and see where Jon McCaslin outlines his own favored version of the Afro 6/8 groove, using the more African-style (that's the way I think of it, anyway) bell pattern.

After the break is some bonus DBMITW:

GOTD: Ed Blackwell -- still more of Togo

Still more of Ed Blackwell's performance on the tune Togo, from the album Old And New Dreams. Michael Griener in Berlin has helpfully informed me in the comments that a transcription of this entire performance was published in the Percussive Arts Society magazine Percussive Notes a couple of years ago, so any of you perc majors who want more of this should know someone with that issue in their library.

Variations on this groove occur in Blackwell's playing a fair amount-- it sounds familiar if you listen to him much.  It comes in after 3:29:

And again, for clarity, without the feet:

See the last entry for links to purchase the album or track.

Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell -- more Togo

Another Ed Blackwell groove today, from a little deeper in the same tune as the last GOTD, Togo, from the self-titled Old And New Dreams on ECM (there's also one on the Black Saint label, which is also highly worth owning). We're also getting a little deeper into Blackwell's thing, as this one is rather challenging. It occurs at 3:21:

I wouldn't worry too much about getting those open and closed hihat notes exactly right-- that's just what he played at that moment-- I'd shoot for open sounds on 1 and 3, and closed sounds on 2 and 4, and let God sort out the &'s. That feet part does muddy the waters substantially, so here it is with the hands only, with one possible sticking:

A little ungainly. If anyone comes up with a more elegant sticking, feel free to share it in the comments.

Again, this isn't available on the youtubes, so you'll just have to buy the record, or, pathetically, just the one track.

Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell - another 6/8

UPDATE: Whoops, a typo, gitoutcher pencils-- scratch that last tom note in the second measure.

Here's another entry in my little project of cataloging as many of Ed Blackwell's grooves as I can figure out. Many of them are pretty inscrutable, so I've been starting with the low-hanging fruit. Here's another one in 6, from the song Togo on Old and New Dreams's self-titled record on ECM, one of my favorite records ever:

This tune is not posted on YouTube, but you can purchase the track (and hear the groove played in the sample) from Amazon.com. You should really do yourself a favor and buy the record, though.

Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell stick and brush

This is one of my favorite things ever, anywhere: Ed Blackwell's opening groove on Charlie Haden's tune Chairman Mao from the first self-titled Old And New Dreams record, on Black Saint (there's another one on the ECM label, which is also great). Here Blackwell plays with a stick in his left hand and a brush in his right:

The brush hand makes the rhythm with a fanning move, which you can hear by listening to the recording; the stick hand just plays the rim click on 2 and the tom on 4. Play the bass drum softly-- when my old band Flatland used to play this tune I would often play it in 4, as Blackwell does when the groove changes a little further on, which has a nice driving energy (on that recording I'm playing the drums with the back ends of rattan-handled marimba mallets, by the way).

Old & New Dreams - 1980 lecture/demonstration

From Warren Senders at Running Gamak, here is audio and a transcript of a clinic given at Harvard by Old and New Dreams (Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell) during their 1980 tour. They speak in depth about Ornette Coleman's "harmolidic" method, and about making music in general.




A fun aside: it was during this tour that, in one of the more inspired programming moves ever, my brother's fusion group, Glider (or was it Glyder? Including Portland bassist Kevin Deitz and LA guitarist Richard Smith), opened for OAND at Perry's in Eugene. I think that was set up by Portland bassist Andre St. James. I had just started taking drum lessons a few months before this, and was learning the nature of  life as a drummer by shlepping my snare drum the mile and a half to school 3 times a week. 

Questions and answers about Ed Blackwell, who was getting dialysis treatment and was not present:

Dewey Redman: ...if the drummer, who is the lifeblood of the group, is not here…it would give it a different inflection with the drummer, because he is the lifeblood, sets up the rhythm, counter-rhythm, etcetera.

[...]

Audience Member: Question for Charlie: Eddie Blackwell is not here, and you are the rhythm section for the time being. What’s that like?

Charlie Haden: Hard!