Transcription: Jack Dejohnette - Tennessee Waltz

Jack Dejohnette plays Tennessee Waltz! One of the most cursed tunes in the standard repertoire. I don't know what's going through his head here— maybe he's having a wonderful time. I know a couple of guys who will confidently tell you what Jack Dejohnette or anybody else is feeling based on what he's playing. I find that annoying, so let's leave it at this: for me it would be a bit of a struggle making a jazz performance out of this tune. There are a lot of funny tunes on Sonny Rollins's records. This is from Falling In Love With Jazz— made in 1989, which certainly has to be the low ebb for that tune as far as jazz musicians are concerned.

Here he's playing behind Jerome Harris's guitar solo, starting at 2:03.

There's a good amount of variation in the dynamics on the ride cymbal— quite a few accents with the shoulder of the stick. To me, that's a modern, post-Tony thing— I feel like I don't hear as much of that with drummers in the 50s. I notice at the end of phrases he'll accent before the 1, but still play the 1 with the bass drum. Not a lot of independence happening here; usually he's playing one foot or the other. There are a couple of standard Dejohnette licks near the end— similar to what he plays in this very old John Scofield transcription.

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Sonny Clark comping

Something a little different: transcribed piano comping rhythms. Played by Sonny Clark on Funky Hotel Blues, a bonus track on the CD release of Sonny Rollins's The Sound of Sonny. I've written out the first three choruses of the sax solo, starting at 0:20 in the track. The form is a 12-bar blues, so that's 36 measures total. Use this as you would the syncopation exercises in Reed— I've even written them in the same format, with a “bass drum” part that you should basically ignore. I don't know why. Tradition.

Swing the 8th notes. I would use this primarily as a comping study— play a swing rhythm on the cymbal and hihat, play the written top line on the snare drum, or bass drum, or play the short notes (untied 8th notes) on the snare drum, everything else on the bass drum. Or mix them up between the snare and bass however you see fit.

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Daily best music in the world: Sonny plays Surrey

Sonny Rollins and Philly Joe Jones play Surrey With The Fringe On Top, duo, on Sonny's record Newk's Time. This has got to be the purest essay on bop drumming ever.

How to play Pent Up House

Or, how to play it the way it was played originally. What we'll do in this series is look at the definitive recorded versions of some commonly played jazz tunes, and nail down all the stuff a drummer should know to really know the thing. Pent Up House, by Sonny Rollins is an easy tune that gets played a lot at sessions, so much that it's easy to be lazy with it. I'm certain I've never looked at a chart while playing it, and have never listened to it with the goal of retaining all of the performance info about it.

Our format here is sort of a glorified drum chart/partial transcription, liberally doused with whatever verbal notes are necessary:

I've given a transcription of the rhythm of the melody of the tune, along with a sketch of the drum part, and some pieces of information you should know: the form, style, tempo, and— why not?— the key. It is recommended that you sit down with a lead sheet, the pdf, and the recording and give the thing a couple of listens (and plays) through. If you're not adept at playing from lead sheets, then this should help give you an idea of how to do that.

There will be questions at the end of the form, about the dotted quarter/8th note figure I've marked with an asterisk, and about the break leading into the solos. The dotted quarter figure is given in most fake books, but on the recording it is only played seemingly accidentally— pianist Richie Powell plays it once, then plays a variation on it, and then Max Roach plays it as part of his fill leading into the solos. The composer— Sonny— never plays it. The pre-solo break is usually played by the drums, but you should be aware that the first soloist may also come in there.

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Audio after the break:

Groove o' the day: Shelly Manne — Way Out West

Here are a couple of very famous things by Shelly Manne, from the album Way Out West by Sonny Rollins. Sonny could be a little perverse in his tune selections, often choosing things that would be considered hokey or uninteresting by many jazz musicians; and here, on the occasion of making a record in LA, he did a couple of cowboy songs. Manne, who was by all accounts a funny, creative cat, chose to use a woodblock to give those numbers a little bit of a horsey flavor.

Swing the 8th notes on Johnny Mercer's I'm An Old Cowhand:

On Wagon Wheels he plays a little backwards hemiola thing:

Audio after the break:

Transcription: Blue Seven

UPDATE: PDF link working now!

I can't believe I've never transcribed this one before. This is a very famous drum solo by Max Roach, on the tune Blue Seven from the album Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins.

The tune is a blues, which is a twelve bar form, composed of three four-measure phrases. The drum solo starts four measures into the form; Max completes that first chorus and plays six more. It's very hands-oriented playing, maintaining quarter notes on the bass drum, lightly, and the 2 and 4 on the hihat all the way through. When he plays the cymbal, it doesn't vary from the usual ride pattern, except to make an accent or set up the next thing. There's a passage in the middle where he pretty clearly uses paradiddle and double paradiddle stickings; I'll let you figure out stickings that work for you on the last chorus. You can find similar solo ideas in Joe Cusatis's Roach-influenced book Rudimental Patterns.  Note that the execution can be a little rough-- the left hand does not always sync precisely with the other limbs, for example.

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YouTube audio after the break:

Quick takes

- Jon McCaslin @ Four on the Floor shares this video of Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, who I had actually not heard of before. He was in Sun Ra's and Archie Shepp's bands in the 80's.

Truth be told, "BETTER THAN HOLLYWOOD” series 115 the master sessions by Marvin Smith part I. from Marvin Bugalu Smith on Vimeo.

There are a ton- like hundreds- more videos of Smith at his vimeo channel.

More selections from neighboring blogs after the break:

Transciption: Pete LaRoca - Oleo

I must apologize for the light posting- I've been occupied with work and with my still-upcoming, really-going-to-happen this time recording session for my new record. Allow me to make it up to you by offering this transcription of Pete LaRoca's playing on a very bright rendition of Sonny Rollins' Oleo, from the "A Jazz Hour With..." series of recordings.

I got to see LaRoca play in Portland on the tour he did around 2001 or so. His chops were a little down, but he still had a great, loose, Elvin-like feel. These old trio recordings with Sonny Rollins are some of the greatest things ever. Here he sketches out the melody just on the ride cymbal, and swings on the bridge, as is normal. I've transcribed the drums only on the fours- there's four measures of Sonny blowing in between each line of drums. The choruses of fours start at 1:10, and LaRoca's first break is at 1:14.

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YouTube clip of the track after the break.

Ron Hudson 1940-2011

Via Rifftides: Seattle photographer Ron Hudson has died at 71. Jazz musicians were his primary subject, and during his career he photographed many of the greats, including Count Basie, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and pictured here, Sonny Rollins.

I'm not sure if you can still purchase prints through his site, but you can visit and view his work.