You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Solo Analysis: Charlie Parker "Tiny Tempo" - #63

Episode Date: November 21, 2018

Today on You'll Hear It, join Adam and Peter as they analyze Charlie Parker's solo on "Tiny Tempo". See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Badoo da baby Bhoobo do. Bop bop. Are we starting? Yeah. I'm Adam Mennis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the Yule here at podcast? Daily Jazz advice coming at you.

That's right. And why were you just scatting? Because that was my Charlie Parker. I'm trying to get in the move. Bebop. That was your Charlie Parker. Hey, man. I'm trying.

That's pretty interesting. I'm just trying to build it up. It's going to sound so much better when we get into this actual. This actual says he who has quite a bit of ink on his hand right now. Bro. I don't know. What's going on? I don't know, man.

I got this fountain pen and it's just not working out for me. Let me set the stage for our dear listeners. I'm sitting across a circular desk in front of the Kranick and Bach across from Adam Manus. He's playing with a fountain pen and there's ink on both of his hands. There's not a lot of ink coming out of the actual pen, yet there's a big blot of ink in his hipster bullet journal. What's going on, man? Well, man, you know, I thought I'd class it up around here and try to do something gentlemanly and get a nice fountain pen. And it's, it's messing me up, Pete.

That's all right. Well, let's get into this solo analysis because that's going to make you feel better. Charlie Parker always makes me feel better. So I thought today, you know, we've done some solo analysis on Herbie Hancock. We've done Brad Meldow. We've done Keith Jarrett. We've done a lot of modern pianist. We're Hargrove.

I thought we would switch it up and go back to some classic bebop. We talked a couple weeks ago about some real B-Bop albums, and this is from the Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes. This is a B-flat blues, something anybody can appreciate. That's right. So, key of B-flat, form is the 12-bar blues. Got it. That's right. Okay.

And it'll be a little bit different kind of solo, because, you know, this is sort of pre-lots of interaction, pre-lots of build-up, although there is some of that. You just have to know what you're listening for here. So this is Tiny's Tempo. Start not swinging. I like that. A little counterpoint Like yesterday, right? Now just a little bit on that head

Because that's not like a classic Bebop head at all That's really just like a tuney kind of blues head Yeah, almost like a little solo Almost like a little solo A little pre-solo All right Bird kicks it off. All right

Okay Well obviously one you know We're both smiling I know right Because it's so great But this is something that Bird does all the time He comes out swinging Comes out swinging, right

A lot of his solo Start off with a very bold, confident statement. Right. And this one is a perfect example. It's like he's lined up. It's first down, zero, zero.

He's lining up in the shotgun. He's not running the ball. Take a shot. Take a shot at the end zone. Why not? Let's hear that again. And long phrase. That's a long phrase.

It's like the whole, how many bars is it? Six bars. Yeah. And I think too, you know, it's like, so basically that whole first chorus is two phrases.

Two phrases. You know, you can kind of break it up into sub phrases, but for all practical purposes and in terms of breath and, but like, I think that one thing he does nicely to set off,

because normally that would sort of go against, you know, a lot of common, you know, tips that you would hear for how to start to solo. We've talked about architecture before. Come out small jabs, little punches, you know,

like short phrases spread out. Yeah. But one reason I think that it works is he does, he starts soloing before the chorus starts. Right. So it's almost like a little, and I mean, I'm sure he didn't think about this,

but it makes sense in terms of the architecture. He does those pickup notes and starts rolling right in. into it. So like he's not waiting to come out and then sort of trying to flip it around. Like he's already into that long phrase. It's almost foreshadowing as to what's happening. Well, the other thing about this is he only does a few

choruses. You know, these are shorter solos in this early bebop era of recordings. Yeah. So kind of get it in. When you're not stretching it out, you can actually start. It's a great way to start. Yeah. Let's continue on. Second chorus, right?

Another six bar. exactly the same. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Let's listen to that again. That's great. But you know, he's structuring. These phrases are so well structured melodically.

Yeah. That's the reason it works. Because until you, like, I mean, I've listened to this stuff so many times. I mean, just Charlie Park in general, this, I haven't listened to a lot, but I've heard it. But in general, he's playing, like, these are things we, it never sounds like, oh, he's playing such long phrases. He's so dense. There's little subphrases. Yeah.

But when you start to. analyze you're like, wow, and it's so cool to analyze any kind of solo or music. And that's what we're supposed to do as musicians. And I think it's important for our listeners maybe to think about a little tip for you guys is that let's dig deep, even when you're just listening. You know, if you transcribe it all the better. But, you know, from a listening enjoyment standpoint, you don't need to know this stuff. But it can really enhance your playing if you take some of these structural kind of conceptual tips about how to structure a solo from the masters. Absolutely. Back it up a little bit.

and so much rhythmic, like, the way he starts and ends phrases, it gives him so much liberty to loosen up the rhythmic intensity within the phrase. Like when he's, you know, he kind of looser, but then he comes out of debop. Like he's like, like that syncopation, those accents, that phrasing is always there. That's the thing that strikes me too. The ends of every single phrase are so swinging. Yeah. And it really puts a great punctuation on the ends of every phrase to be that swinging with the

them, either like, Padida, or Bada-da-da-d-da, you know, some kind of syncopation, or even if it's on the downbeat, another thing that strikes me is, I don't know if you've noticed, but on almost every single phrase so far, there's some kind of feeling of the blues somewhere in there. You know what I mean? The blues is so prevalent in his sound, in his

language. Like, if we back it up again to the start of that phrase, you can hear, like, he hangs on this big note. Let's see if you hear it. That's all the blues right there. and then it's swinging yeah

yeah I mean the juxtaposition of the bebop and the blues I mean of course at that time it was he wasn't structuring it in that way but that's really from an analysis standpoint

how you can look at almost everything that he plays that's right and it's something to consider when you're like honing your bebop stuff and you're trying to get that sound

do not ignore the power of the blues bird certainly didn't I think in every single one of his solos it's such a important element. You know, we look at all like the mathematical bebop stuff about it and the, the changes over the little, you know, the tritone or whatever, you know, theoretical thing, which is probably not that important about it. But, you know, one of the more important elements, I think, is that is that blues feel that he gets with just the sound, some of the language. And then, man, the way the phrases swing is so unique and important. Well, and it's just a great way to give some drama within the melodic, you know, improvised lines that's really based upon the harmony, if you think about it.

So you've got the, you know, drama can often be tension and released, but can also just be sort of juxtaposing two different sounds that would seem like they can't fit together. Yeah. But when you stretch them out and do it horizontally, they can fit beautifully together. He's such a great example that where you've got the, like when he's hitting that major seven, then you go into the blues, which is kind of against that. That's right. But you're doing it as all part of one line.

It's a great way to experiment in your practice. So what you could do is sort of go through and say, okay, every phrase that I'm going to play over the blues is going to have an element of a major seven and some element of a blues. And I'm going to play longer phrases. Now, a lot of them are not going to sound great and they aren't going to sound like bird at first,

but you'll start to kind of find some different sounds and you're playing, and it's a great kind of restrictive practice, what we like to call restrictive practice, where you just do that over and over. You're still being creative, but within those parameters. I think we could pretty much listen to this whole solo, again, it's so short, one time through the whole thing.

You know, what I'm going to listen for now. If ASCAP, BMI will let us listen to the whole solo, we'll see. We're about to find out. But, you know, another thing that strikes me is his sound, how crisp it is. The articulation is so... Man, his intonation is killing on me. Nation is killing.

I mean, the alto sax, an instrument known to be played out of tune by even the masters. It's hard. But he's always right there. Groove, obviously. The time feel is spot on. Side note on intonation for, you know, any instrument that it's an issue,

basically everything but the piano. Nicholas Payton, I just read, he said something on social media yesterday. Someone was complimenting him on his intonation. And he said, you know, intonation is not about technique. It's about ears. It's about hearing.

Like, you have to hear. the pitchers, you have to hear, your ears have to demand that to be in tune. And then the technique of doing that follows that. That's right. All right, let's check out this whole solo all the way through. Shout out to the rhythms after that one. Yeah. You're swinging hard.

Coming out like with an ascot and a comfort bond on. It's so confident. I'm here at the party, what's up? So confident. Pink socks. A little walking bar a little on that F. So precise, man, with the articulation. Such a great solo, such a compact little.

35 second or whatever it was. Nice. That's great. Nice. Cool. Good. Well, I think we, you know, I mean, really, when we analyze these solos, we're kind of, by saying anything about them, we're kind of saying too much in a way because they truly stand on their own. But I do think it's fun to just, you know, again, you don't necessarily need this stuff to be able to enjoy the listening of it, but I think if you want to apply even some small things to your playing, it's really good to get inside of some of this stuff and start

to understand it because you can take these things and use them. in a way that can be surprisingly effective on your own playing. As long as, I mean, yeah, you can always take the lick and learn the solo. And learning the solo is great. Your training and everything. But just get a couple of these concepts. It can really enhance things. That's right.

Yeah. So tomorrow's Thanksgiving. What are you doing? Well, I'm going to be doing a combination of running in the morning. Nice. Doing a little race. Oh, you're doing like a turkey day run. I always do the little turkey try. As always, I did it last year and I'm going to do it this year.

Always. Yeah. And it's funny because it's an 8. K at the park down, what is it, Lafayette Park? Not Lafayette. Tower Grove Park. Yeah. That's a nice park.

And I remember I started last year and they said, I asked somebody else like, wait, how far is this race? I thought it was a 10K or a 5K. And the guy's like, oh, it's four miles. I was like, oh, cool, cool, four miles. That's a weird distance, though, right? But it's not. It's actually five miles. It's closer to five miles.

And I'm running. I'm like, man, this thing's going on forever. What the hell is going on? And I asked the guy, he's like, oh, it's 8K. I'm doing the calculations in my mind. Can the U.S. finally get on the metric system, please? Wouldn't that be great? Can we get off the mile

and the inch and the... It's so weird that our measurements are based off of just some old king's little foot anatomy from hundreds of years. It's out. It is weird. But you know what is not whack? Well, first of all, that's whack, right? That's totally whack. What's not whack...

I feel a transition coming on. Is our Black Friday specials. Coming up in what, 48 hours? Not even. Depending on when you're listening to this. This is going to drop Thanksgiving night at midnight. Eat all your turkey if you're in the U.S.

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so that you don't have a big mess in the morning. That's always a pro tip right there. That's right. But then around midnight. Around midnight. At midnight. At midnight, you're going to want to go

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Yeah, but so, yeah, so they're going to go and actually go to openstitio network.com slash BF right now, unless you're driving. That's right. Pull over and then do it. And because if you sign up now, you know, this might actually drive. for our you'll hear listeners. I haven't confirmed this with the powers that be here,

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