You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Oscar Peterson - How High the Moon (Solo Breakdown WED) - #13

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

Adam and Peter break down one of OP's most ridiculous piano solos. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A little earlier in the evening, we featured our guitarist, Turby Ellis. And at this time, we'd like to feature our bassist, Ray Brown, as he joins us to do a number that has become a jazz classic. How high the moon. You know what that sound means? Solo Analysis Wednesday. It must be Wednesday. Yep. Hump Day.

So I'm Adam S. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice and Analysis. Coming at you. It's brought to you by Open Studio. And today I'm very excited because I get to listen to and talk about one of my all-time favorite solos. A solo that'll make you feel bad about yourself if you're a pianist.

But if you're a human, make you love life. This whole album, this is from, that's obviously Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown and Herb Ellis. And that's from the album Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, which is a crazy name for an album. you up for that festival. Why would they have the Oscar Peterson trio at a Shakespearean festival? I don't know. So glad they did, though. And was the band wearing, like, period costume? I want to know. Anyway, this is how high the moon.

Yep. And this is your week. We should just say, I don't know if people are catching the pattern. We've only been doing this a few weeks, but we're trading off each week. Yeah, yeah, this is definitely on me. And do you know this album at all? Have you listened to this? I've heard it, and I really don't know it. No.

So I'm excited. I've heard the whole album. I actually have the LP somewhere, but I'm excited to dive into it. Yeah, the whole album is incredibly good. Yeah. Just really, they're hitting at a peak time, I think, for this group. And this is, you know, the ultimate, for me, the ultimate Oscar Peterson Fireworks kind of solo. It's a nice slow build.

It's super swinging. It actually, he mentions here at the intro that he features Ray Brown. Ray Brown takes an incredible solo, the first solo on this tune, and we could do a whole analysis on that because it's a really great. great bass solo. Incredible only if you love really great bass solos. Yeah, I mean, it's perfectly executed with sound and swing. Yeah. It's fine. Yeah. It's fine. Yeah. For a baseball. It's aye. It's eye. So here it is. We'll just start it. We'll see what happens here. I mean, I could just listen to this. Honestly, it's so good. So this is Oscar Peterson solo on how high the moon. Wait, can we pause there? Sorry. I'm sorry. I know

this is your week, but I just want to make note of something here. Okay, people always talk about how busy Oscar Peterson is. Now, he starts out busy. In a way in that he's, you know, double-timing, but he's always juxtaposing it with something else in the music that makes it work structurally for where he is in the solo. Yeah, no, he's... Like, big spaces there, like symmetrical kind of time

between the playing and the rest. It really works, I think. I'm going to back it up a little bit. Back the thing up at him. Whoa. Yeah, big pauses. Yeah. Short phrases.

Yep. Not afraid to hit some nice quarter notes. Right. Okay, so I want to highlight that. So when I hear like intermediate players, that's usually the part where they mess up the most. Right. You know what I mean? That's when they take a step back if they've been, you know, doing the bannula-l-da-da-stuff and they've been using some chops.

When I hear them then do something simple, that's usually when the swing fails for some reason. Yeah. And notice for this, that those two phrases that were like a copycat phrase was so swinging and intense. He kept it going. Let's hear that again. Well, and I would just say that to play and to be able to swing, like, do-d-de-de-d-d-do, or even do-bo-hoof-s-co-be-bit is easier than boo-doo-doo-do-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bop. Like that cordon-oose, those cordonos, right?

Yeah. That's hard. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't sound hard with Oscar Peter. It's not hard for Oscar Peterson, but to your point of an intermediate player. Let's spend a little time working on that instead of just the double-time stuff, because you can kind of get away with feel, I think, easier. I think that's a great point. Let's spend a little time working on it. I think people overlook those kind of things in your practice routine. I mean, you've talked about

practicing quarter notes and just how like that simple exercise of practicing, you know, simple beats to a metronome really helps get your entire time game together. Yeah, can you, can you play five choruses in a row at this tempo with your solo with only quarter notes, you know, and phrases that make sense, but you're restricted just quarter note and swing and be in the groove for those entire five chords. Super hard. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's not hard for Oscar Peterson. Let's check it out. He's still kind of skating here and still just chilling. I want to stop, but I can. I know. Somebody in the audience seems to be singing along with him perfectly.

It's like he knows what he's about to play. So I do want to stop here and make a note of besides all of the incredible technical things that are happening here with both hands, how in his double time feel, he still keeps a very swinging line. There's still these like syncopation points. You know what I mean? It's not just like Bapadudududadadda da da da da.

He's like he's like, but da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Yeah. You know like these real shape, direction. There's shape, there's direction. It feels like a solo that could be at, you know, 90 beats per minute.

Yeah. He's playing that double time. I think this kind of double time playing and I mean, you know, Oscar Peterson said, I mean, he wasn't the first to do this, but he set such a, you know, sort of template and standard for all of us afterwards to try to fit into that. But he did such a great job of, you know, taking on the sort of reckless side of double-time playing, which it needs to feel reckless and out of character for that, because the original groove is still going.

If everyone goes to that temple, then it's just a fast temple. And you can do that. But with this, when you're playing double-time, it's kind of like, you know, you're, you're running next to a car and you kind of get out in front and maybe kind of cut across the highway there's a little danger there is a little danger and it should feel like that it shouldn't just be like perfectly executed technique it's not about

that and so I think with the shape of his lines and stuff he kind of goes over the bar lines a little bit and just mixes it up in a way that I mean I'm totally oversimplifying it but I think it's that reckless character that he was able to do and a lot of other pianists have adopted. I like that word for this reckless

because it feels like controlled recklessness You know what I mean? He could fall off the cliff at any minute, but he's walking on the side. And what an exciting thing for the listener. And I think people really, they don't need to understand what piano technique he is, what a G7, Sharp 9 and all this stuff, that we would appreciate from hearing this. But to be able to get that feeling, when you take the listener on a journey,

and you can feel like you're about to go off the cliff and then you pull the listener back, man, now you've got the listener on the edge of their seat. And you're giving them their money's worth. Well, there's a big payoff that comes from this. Wow. Okay. Take a breath. That's right.

Take a breath. Let me get a cigarette. Jeez. Let me get a joint. That entire half chorus of block chord double time. I mean, and still keeping that, you know, swinging anticipations. Yeah. So developing those themes and the theme development.

And then when he goes into that, a boom, bah, I mean, that's when you just lose it, right? Yeah. It's amazing. Now, do they have an actual vocal lavalier on? on him. It's like, that's a lot. I forgot that he's such a, such a Keith Jared-esque vocalist. The only thing I can think of with this is that like, you know, we had the episode Monday about pianos that we like. Yeah. He must have just been really feeling this piano. You know what I mean? Because even for him, this, even for live him, for live Oscar Peterson,

this is like, you could tell he's just like super into it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, he's a big, probably not at this. Well, I don't know, maybe already at this time. This is like early 60s, right? Yeah, yeah. If he was already on the best. Bosendorfer train. He was a big Bosendorfer guy, you know. Oh, I wonder what this is. Oh, I mean, the power in that, what do you call that? Like a block chord roll or something? A block chord tremolo, yeah. Tremolo, man.

How, how, yeah. Because a lot of people, you know, a lot of times you'll hear people do it, and the octave in the right hand is sort of strong and everything is sort of a, I mean, this whole thing is like, shit about shaking. I mean, the piano must have been just shaking. Yeah. And then they go back down. Oh, man. But, I mean, what a great dramatic thing. And then I think that what he adapts so well in this solo,

he did it so many times, but that, I'm sorry, I'm just like talking over some of other good stuff. I'm fading it out. Oh, man, look at that. See, we do this live, yo. That's right. But, I mean, you know, adapting his playing, still Oscar Peterson, but adapting to the drummerless trio with the guitar.

Yeah. And so it's a different way of playing. He wouldn't have played that solo the same with Oscar Peterson trio with drums. Totally. You know, he could have played similar themes. and buildup, but you could have relied a little more on the drum. So he had to really kind of go in there, and you don't want those big buildup and the payoff to feel like, ooh, I wish it was a drummer here.

And it really almost sounds like a big band. Yeah. It's kind of big bandish. You got to think, if anybody knows how to swing with this guitar trio, you know, guitar piano trio, it's these guys at this point, you know, in the early 60s, like this was 63 or four. Yeah. And like them here were really swinging and knew how to work that entire.

that entire sound. Yeah, and I mean, Ray Brown making a little bit of adjustment, too, to not playing with drums, but not a huge one. I mean, it's very Ray Brown. It's a little, maybe more aggressive, maybe, you know, he's definitely on the, on the, right in the beat. Maybe, to me, it sounds like just a little on top of the beat, that kind of, yeah. But without the drums, it's a little bit different way of playing as well, and, you know, such a beautiful foundation he's laying. Yeah, it's an interesting, it's an interesting, it's an interesting, and it's, Oscar Peterson is interesting. I mean, this is like the solo, it's almost jockey, right?

Like, it's almost like, wow, that's athletic. And it's awesome. Yeah. It's maybe not the most, like, you know, intense artistic statement, but I always feel so good when I listen to it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I always think Oscar Peterson even, yeah,

the athleticism of his playing is in almost every recording really apparent. But there's always a lot of contrast in there, too. Yeah. You know, like when he breaks it down, there's a lot of, you know, just the control elements. I mean, it's all control of the instrument, but they're very dynamic control and sound and voicings and all that kind of thing. Yeah. All right.

Cool. That's good. I love Wednesdays. Wednesdays are good. Solo analysis. So if you want, you can hit us up and let us know some solos you might be interested in. Although we got a nice little cue, both of us. So we might get to yours for a while, just so you know.

Should I tell them about what we're doing next week? Give him a little. Hey, what are we doing next week? Well, it's going to be my week. So I was going to choose a Kenny Kirkland. I won't even say which one it was. I'm always thinking about Kenny Kirkland, but I've especially been thinking about it recently.

So I'm going to do one. I got a bunch to choose from. So tune in next week on that. And we were talking about ratings and reviews yesterday. We were? Yeah, we stopped for a couple days, but I promised to read another one. And look, you don't have to write them like this,

and you can go read them yourself, write what you want. But these are little examples of the love we're getting here at the You'll Hear of Podcast. This is from, April grateful. April grateful? April grateful? Yeah, one word.

A mouthful. Yeah, April grateful from United States of America. Okay. And this is interesting because we're always talking about seven stars and stuff. This is actually the title of this five-star review is infinite stars. Infinite stars. Infinite stars. That's a next level kind of thing.

April Grateful has won up to us with the seven, the ten and a half, the 12 and all that. We're going, she's going straight at infinite. Anyway, she or he says, I love this podcast, exclamation, exclamation point. Adam and Peter are such pros, and they are giving out great info and hysterically funny and are hysterically funny together. Well, I mean, do tell. I've got the golden ticket. I mean, go on. Tell me about, that's like, that's a geetian wilder meme.

Tell me how I'm so. infinitely funny with my friend Adam. Oh, I lost it. Oh, I am an adult intermediate pianist transferring from classical to jazz. Weren't you just speaking about intermediate pianists, right? I was, yeah. I'm an adult intermediate pianist transferring from classical to jazz, and even though they are pros, I have learned so much from them.

I have listened to every episode. Thanks for keeping after it. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah, yeah. So thank you for that. Please keep the ratings and reviews coming both for our ego. and mainly more important.

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Which we should have been for the beginning. I don't know what was up with that. So we're climbing the charts. I don't even know where you can access the charts. There's no charts. No, there's no charts. But we're getting a lot of listeners, so that's nice. That's very cool.

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But it's very high quality. It's really nice. These are not like those, you know, you get those t-shirts and, like, you start getting some abrasions around your neck, you know. They pill up on the collar. Now, these are no pill. Just as we are no pill musicians, these are no pill t-shirts for sure.

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I like it, I just don't see it. Not everything's for you, man. Obviously not. I don't have it. Anyway, you have a couple different types, different sizes. We have a hoodie. What? I'm looking at this.

I got to get the hoodie. Man, it's starting to get. Is it? you'll hear it hoodie? There's a you'll hear it hoodie. Look at that. That's beautiful. Isn't it?

Oh, man. Yeah. Hoodie. And because I love putting, I love getting on the airplane with a hoodie. I'm all, even in the summer, man, why are airplanes so cold? I don't know. Hashtag random rant. I mean, so I always have like a hoodie in my bag because I'll bust out a hoodie, you know.

So that, there you go. I'm going to bust out of you'll hear it. Ooh, that one's kind of pricey. Might not bust that one. Oh, come on, man. We could probably. 3750? I think that's worth every penny.

Is it? Is it? Okay. That's worth every penny. Well, order me one and I'll tell you. All right. Well, until tomorrow, you'll hear it. Hoodie.