You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of: The Tunes of Season 4

Episode Date: October 23, 2019

Peter's off traveling the world, so this week we'll be bringing you some of our favorite moments from YHI Season 4. Today, it's Adam and Peter's favorite tunes from their "7 Best..." lists of this season.Best Tunes:"Autumn Leaves" and "Solar" (from "17 Tunes You Gotta Know")"It Could Happen to You" and "The More I See You" (from "Our 7 Favorite 2 Feels")"Stablemates" and "Giant Steps" (from "7 Jazz Standards You Gotta Know")"Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Jitterbug Waltz" (from "Our 7 Favorite Tunes in 3")Like those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

All right, let's go. We've got 17. We've got to keep it moving. First, autumn leaves. Classic. That's a classic. Look, just, you know, know it. And this one, you've got to know in a couple different keys because the singers like to do it.

I mean, you got to know it in every key. You got to know it in every key. Yeah, yeah. But. E minor and G minor. Yeah, for sure. Those are big ones. And then, you know, you have to know it in French and English.

Not you don't know. If you're saying, you might. But yeah, not a hard tune, but definitely know it. All right. Number two is Miles Davis. This is Solar. This is really a variation on a blues. Yeah.

It's 12 bars, and it's super, super fun to blow on. Is it solar or solar? I don't know. Everybody says solar, but it's written as solar. Right. And was it actually written by Miles Davis? That's what it says in the real book, so it must be true. There you go.

We do not endorse the real book. All right. Let's have a good old fashion. You'll hear it playlist. I know. Listening sesh for our seven favorite two fields. I think we should just start with April's first suggestion, her first idea, Miles Davis, it could happen to you from relaxing.

Let's do it. Okay, so, you know, that class, class dismissed. Class dismissed. There is right there. Two field. No, okay, we can't talk about a two field. We can almost only talk about it with the bass players in a way. Like, that's what lays it down.

We can do it. We're going to get into some stuff without bass just to show it. But it's like what Paul Chambers just did, up until that point, he didn't play anything but half notes. Did you realize that? He didn't do any. And then he just at that moment where we rudely cut him off kind of went. into a little bit of alteration, but it was just like boom, boom. So yeah, of course, it's the whole rhythm section,

but it like comes from the base. You gotta be confident on that two feel to just hit that half note. How many times it would we talked about practicing? And when we do that at the piano episode, we'll definitely hit that up talking about these tunes to practice with just that half note in the left hand because we've gotta be able to give the feel

without the, you know, it's kind of like, can you bake a really good cake without all the little ornaments? If you can do that, then when you add the stuff It's great, but you've got to have that cake's got to be slamming. Agreed. It's, that, that base has got to be there. I'm hungry A-F right now. The B-A-S-E base, not the B-A-S-S, but both.

I remember, have some almonds, man. We have all this food and stuff. I remember our buddy Rubin Rogers was in here talking about the two-feel once for, I believe it was for our rhythm section course and was very adamant of what it's not. And the two-feel is not, it's not quarter-nose. rest, quarter note, rest. It is long, connected, big, beautiful half notes that run into each other. You very much heard that with that first track. You're going to hear that again, another OK bass player. This is more of a modern recording of Oscar Peterson, Benny Green,

Ray Brown on bass, and our buddy Gregory Hutchinson on drums. This is The More I See You. Check it out. All based on that half note. To go into time here. But just that first A section there, all based around the that half note. You can hear Ray connecting them. You know, that's another part of it, connecting the dots. It takes a lot of listening to two fields to kind of instinctually know when that's, you know, kind of cool to do to kind of put it into four for just a minute, you know. Yeah, and look, as pianists, we can learn so much from the baseball. I mean, that's how you learn. We're going to hear this later with Oscar to when he's playing the baseline. But the idea,

you know, that Ray Brown, he actually, this is a kind of short period for a two field before they go to the swing. But he still played some quarter notes in there. Yeah, he still put him in. That's fine. Like, that's, it's about the feel. It's not just about, it doesn't have to just be doong to ging, but doonka-dun, and definitely not what you were saying before, like the doom-too-dun-tut.

That's different. So, I mean, I think that it's like once you get that feel, and then great drummers, I'm not sure who it is. Oh, it's Hutch. That's right, Hutch, yeah, because he's over on the high hat. Great, you know, getting ready. Like, that's the big textural setup from when you go to the four. The Two-Field is all about anticipation and transition to going,

somewhere else. Even if you stay there. Yeah. You don't have to leave it. You're still building this tension. You're still building the tension. You're right. Let's just call dusty old jazz standards. Dusty old jazz standards that you got to learn because old heads like us insist on calling him at the session. That's right. There's no Kamasi Washington on here. Let's put it that way. Not yet.

It's a little, it's not that modern. Okay. So let's kick it off with, I think you picked this one. Stablemate. So I just wanted to pick a Benny Golson to him because I feel like he's an important modern jazz composer. Yeah. It could have been along came Betty. It could have been a number of tunes. But Stablemates is...

Killer Joe. Killer Joe. Stablemates is a difficult tune. Yeah, and it's a little bit more on the jazz, the jazz, like kind of baseball jazz kind of tune, I guess. For sure, you've got to know how to navigate some... Spoodoo-oo-D-D-Ean. Some changes.

You can't... ABA form. Did you know that? Yeah. Oh, I know, because these are things I've got to know, apparently. Some chromaticism. It's not just you can play a major scale over and get away with it. Right.

And it's a great tune, too. It's the kind of tune that when you learn it, So we're telling you you got to know it, but you're going to be thanking us because if you learn this, let's say you didn't know this one and you knew all of them. It's like one of those tunes that really teaches you something. Like you will learn. Like it's almost an exercise, like a, like a etude in a way that you learn from it, but it's great music too. So good one. So number two is a repeat from our list last week.

Really? We couldn't even get past number two without a repeat. It looms large over modern jazz compositions. By modern you mean old. Yeah. Okay. Giant Steps. Yeah.

By John Coltr. Yeah. That's an important one. You got to know it. Whether you're talking about Great American Songbook or modern jazz standards, either way you got to know it.

The faster you get into this, the easier it becomes the more work you put in, the more you get back. Skibibib, be, booby, skis-d-d-do-de-do. You got to put it in the time. It'll shift the way you think

about improvising. It really does. And it's a reference point even when you're not playing the tune. That's why you got to know it. Yeah. You don't necessarily have to master it, although mastery is nice.

Effortless, masterly. Mastery, even better. I believe that's the fifth reference to that book. this week. But today we're talking about tunes in three waltzes, and can I be honest, not my favorite meter? Three-four? Yeah.

Creve-Corps. Creve-core. Three-four. No, I mean, not my least favorite. But as we were putting this list together, I realize there are some fun tunes to play. I just don't like the, let's do a jazz waltz just to change it up. I agree. And then it has to become this kind of corny, sleazy swing.

Corny, sleazy. I don't know about the sleazy, but you know what I'm saying. A little bit like, Tekka-Ting, chik-tik. I mean, who are you playing with that are playing these? You know, you've been on a gig where it's like, let's play in three. But some of these are classics.

Like, jazz wouldn't be the same without some of these. Actually, all of these. Yeah. And certainly not without this first one. What? Oh, okay. Yeah, you don't have your headphones on, do you? Yeah, you're missing out.

Yeah. There you go. Nothing sleazy about that. No, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, Mighty fine playing there by the whole tree on that intro. Okay, but I... Well, let's just wait until I think Miles is going to be coming in, perhaps. Okay, this is incredible.

It's certainly one of my favorite things in three. But I would say that the rhythm section is almost playing in six on that intro, if you think about it. Like the way they're phrasing it? A lot of these things are, it's going to be sort of hazy on where the actual pulse is. Is it in three? Is it in 12? Is it in six?

Yeah. You know, I think that this is something that needs to be addressed when you play in three, that it's not all the jazz waltz. Like a... Yeah, maybe that's why this sounds so good. No, I mean, but that's the thing. When you go to those odd meters, those three, four, those five, four, those seven, four meters. Yeah.

It's fun to play with where the pulses. It doesn't have to be the standard whatever it is, the waltz or whatever. And I think the way they accomplished that on this is... Like, Winton Kelly Winsons starts improvising. even when he's comping before, this is one of the greatest intros. I love it. I love it.

The whole album, actually, unbelievable. But, you know, he's really phrasing in two bars or six kind of beats as the main phrase. And then even Miles, he's so thoughtful about the way he comes in because this melody is so, like, on the beat every three beats, but he kind of stretches that out, too,

and it gives it an elasticity that I think is brilliant. But, yeah, it's a three. It's classic. One, two, three. All right, speaking of classic, we have something that even predates that, and this is the jitterball, Waltz by Fats Waller.

Yeah. Couldn't find a great version that we could agree on by Fats. So we went with this version by Vince Garaldi. Yeah. And that is so great. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I was just looking back, I like this record. I haven't heard a long time in person. It's the one with the double picture of him. Yeah.

OJC, original jazz classics, West Coast thing. And this is from a live record. Did you know that? I did not know that. Yeah. I love the name of this, the place they were at. This album was recorded live in 1962 Sausalito's Trident Lounge. I mean, that has mid-century modern

West Coast vibe just dripping all over. Trident. Ooh, that's good. Yeah.