Transcription: Bill Stewart solo

Something released in a year starting with a 2, for once. Here Bill Stewart solos during James, from Pat Metheny's Trio - Live record. Stewart is a few months older than me, and is sort of the archetypal drummer artist of my generation. I first heard him on John Scofield's Meant To Be in 1991, and it was instantly obvious that he was doing something fresh and extra-musical. It's routine now for drummers to sound like him, with that pretty tom tom sound.    

The solo begins at 3:50, the tempo is quarter note = 166— on the real scale of tempos, that's pretty bright to be double timing, playing 16th notes. I'll talk about what I mean by that another time. 

It's mostly 8th notes, and he mostly stays on the cymbal and snare drum. There are some open drags with the left hand— that's the occasional 16th notes you see— and a big 16th note lick near the end of the first page. He plays his one note on the third tom tom on that. There's a passage of 16th notes in the second page, too— notice he repeats the same idea in measures 30, 31, and 33. Plus a BSSB pattern with a cymbal on the first note. 

He uses that pattern repeatedly. As I do— it's extremely useful and sounds cool— it's good to get very friendly with it. Let's credit Elvin Jones for originating that one. 

The open hihat lick in the middle of the first page is questionable. I've written it as if he plays the open notes with his left hand, but he could be splashing it with his foot. If that's the case it's a pretty developed technique, which you'll need to spend some time with. 

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Transcription: Billy Higgins / Tears Inside

Tears Inside, from Pat Metheny's album Rejoicing, is such a favorite track of mine, I'm surprised we haven't done anything with it before. I did transcribe the drum intro for the forthcoming[!!!] Book of Intros. So to tie into that, here's Billy Higgins comping behind the first three choruses of Metheny's guitar solo. His playing on this record is one of the greatest things in recorded drumming, and this tune is like a textbook of medium tempo bop drumming— I hate to reduce it to that, because it's primarily a great work of art, but it's also educational.

Swing the 8th notes. Higgins plays his ride cymbal at a fairly even volume— generally without the accenting characteristic of many drummers' playing; and he tends to not be over-triplety in his swing feel. He flattens it out a bit. There's no hihat audible, but you can add it on 2 and 4 if you want. He does often play time on the bass drum— feathers it, in current parlance— and probably is doing that here. You can practice the page in one, two, or four measure chunks, or learn the whole thing like an etude.

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Billy's best

Here's some more essential Billy Higgins listening for you. I hesitate to declare anything the best— because a) the man played on over 700 albums, of which I have been exposed to, what, 5-7%? And b) what I know about “best”? But these are the records that were most influential to me. He's also on multiple albums— major works— with Cedar Walton, Mal Waldron, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Clifford Jordan, Eddie Harris, Charles Lloyd, and many others— enough that any two players might have completely different lists of favorites.

Ornette Coleman — Change of the Century
The Shape of Jazz To Come is more famous, but this one's my favorite of his records with Ornette. This is probably the track of his career, for me:




Don Cherry — Brown Rice
I've loved this since I found a derelict vinyl copy of it in the early 90s; for a long time it was as out of fashion as macramé. Charlie Haden is on this, and the next few...




Don Cherry — Art Deco
Lots of great medium tempo swinging here— for me this is kind of the record for modern bop drumming.




More after the break:

Favorite albums: Billy Higgins

I guess I could've called this Higgins and Haden. These are four records from what is for me the classic phase of Higgins' career in terms of his sound- he's got that heavy-ish rivet cymbal and floppy snare drum sound, and is nice and present in the mix. The advances in recording technology since the classic Blue Note and Ornette records of the 50's and 60's really agree with him, and his delicate touch really communicates. There's also a sense of a new level of mastery in his playing- it feels as natural as breathing.

Pat Metheny - Rejoicing
With Higgins and Charlie Haden. Word is that Metheny wasn't thrilled with this record- he thought the band played better on other occasions. We'll have to take his word for it. It's hard to pick a favorite track from the first side; I think the wash of brushes on Lonely Woman is the star of the show, though. 

Don Cherry - Art Deco
Cherry and Higgins plus Charlie Haden and James Clay. One of the most relaxed and unpretentious drum performances ever- I wish more people would emulate that. Tunes include Cherry's Art Deco, Bemsha Swing, When Will The Blues Leave, Body & Soul, and The Blessing.

Joshua Redman - Wish
The Rejoicing band together again. I guess people don't dig Redman at this early stage of his career, but that doesn't matter- it's a great ensemble performance. Moose the Mooche is the standout, along with some nice originals I don't know the titles of. 

Don Cherry - Brown Rice
This is an older record than the others, and very much from the 70's- quite clearly- I mean to tell you there is no ambiguity whatever on that question- none. Like doing macramé at a Bahai temple while tripping on LSD, I imagine.

Audio after the break:

The stars are aligned

Or something. Looks like I'll be playing this tune with two different groups two weeks in a row, after never playing it in the 20+ years I've known it. A ton more Metheny/Haynes/Holland goodness after the break.

Roy Haynes transcription round-up

I thought I'd follow up my Elvin Jones transcription round-up with one of the other great jazz masters, Roy Haynes. I'm a little surprised to find I've only put up two things of his, his solo on Morpheus, from Miles Davis and Horns, and his intro to H&H, from Pat Metheny's Question and Answer- we'll have to do something about that soon. Meanwhile, enjoy these other Roy transcriptions from around the web: 

Evidence - head and solo transcribed by Brian Adler
From the live album Monk in Action, a record I've never owned, strangely, though I'm very close to it's companion, Misterioso. Adler has transcribed the head and drum solo, helpfully providing us with the melody of the tune so you can see how the drumming interacts with it. His site has a nice downloads section I'll be taking a closer look at. Here's a bonus solo drum intro from it.
Download the pdfs: head - solo

Down Home - solo transcribed by Dan DiPiero
DiPiero's Tuneblog gives us this from the classic Haynes' album, Just Us, along with some analysis and background information. Tuneblog has moved since this was posted, so be sure visit him at his current address.
Read the piece and download the pdf via Mediafire.

Matrix - head and four choruses blowing transcribed by Peter Saleh
From Chick Corea's Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, this is pretty much the greatest thing ever. Visit Saleh's teaching site.
Download the pdf. - Bonus Elvin transcription- If by Larry Young!

Reflections - solo transcribed by Bryan Bowman
From Haynes'  We Three. I guess it falls on me to put up something from Out of the Afternoon (just to remind you how lucky you are, that's an album I picked up used in 1987, and never saw again in a record store until it was reissued I think in the early 00's.)  Aside from his personal stuff, there are a few more drumming tidbits lurking on Bowman's site, so I'd recommend paying him a visit. You should also visit Jacob Roved's site, to see an alternate version of just the intro of this tune, along with some other good things.
Download the pdf.

Solar - head and two choruses of blowing transcribed by Tim @ Tim's Parlour
An old favorite I've linked to before, from Pat Metheny's Question and Answer, one of my favorite albums.
Download the pdf.

Metheny/Moses/Swallow

Just go here.

Transcription: Three Intros

Another fast little project- drum intros from three of my favorite players, tracks, and albums: Paul Motian on Resistor, from Bill Frisell's Rambler, Roy Haynes on H & H, from Pat Metheny's Question And Answer, and Elvin Jones on Ascendant, from his great trio's The Ultimate.

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