You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Tunes That Teach Ya Somethin

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Adam and Peter list their favorite tunes that actually teach ya something! Learning these tunes will give you a better grasp on your playing in these contexts.Check out our playlist on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/69uTCFvMKo8CEBLfWrGiL6?si=ZPCpzVnQThq6Wy87bhAEjALooking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no furtherhttps://youllhearit.com/Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter. Yeah. You know this Victor Lewis tune? Hey, it's me you're talking to. Not only is a great tune. It's kind of a music lesson. Oh, two birds with one stone. Swing lesson, too.

I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music Explored. Explored, brought to you by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio, jazz.com for all. Oh, your jazz lesson needs. Music lessons.

We're beyond jazz at this point. We are music lessons. That's actually correct. That's right. Peter, what are we talking about? We're talking about tunes that teach you something. These are tunes that teach you something. We often talk about some of these on here as little mini music lessons that are encapsulated in a tune itself.

And I thought we could talk about some of our favorite tunes that are actually little music lessons and why they're music lessons. Right. So these are sort of potentially, I think in the best case scenario, tunes that are for folks that are looking for a very efficient practice. you're getting the most bang for your buck. You're getting some fun, good music. You're developing your repertoire, but you're also learning. I mean, they're almost like musical atudes in a way, you know, like the old school piano atudes that would inform

and help you to work on specific parts of your technique, often just one element per atude. These all kind of are thematic in terms of like what they're actually teaching you. I mean, look, anything, you could just take a basic 12 bar blues in the KFC and say everything you need to know about music is in there. But there's other things that can take you on specific journeys, if that's more like advanced chromatic harmony or something. Or shifting time signatures, all the different elements of music.

It's great to learn them and practice them, develop them, extend upon them within a musical context. Or in the case of our first example, how to play bebop. Okay. Okay. I don't know this record. This is called a Derry Serenade to a bus seat. That's Whitney Kelly on the piano. That's Paul Chambers on the bass.

That's Philly Joe Jones on the drum. And of course, that is Donna Lee. And Johnny Griffin on tenor. I mean, first of all, I love the cover. I've never seen this record in my life. You've been on a Clark Terry kick lately. I love Clark Terry. I'm not afraid to sue me.

I don't know every record. Serenade to a bus seat. Look at that cover. I don't know this record very well, actually. It's Riverside and with the lineup is unbelievable. He said Johnny Griffin, Witton, Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe. So this is what my week is going to be. He's listening to Serenade to a bus seat.

But this is a great example of Donna Lee. Now this tune, if you learn it, even if you just take that first phrase. I thought it went. That's Indiana, yes. Okay. Caleb, let's put up some cordy while we're here. Cordesque.

Should we get Cordesk with this party? So if we just take the first phrase of... Maybe look at this. Oh, he's got it. No, let's not pause. So take the first phrase... So we're in the key of A-flat. So even that first phrase has so much information, especially if you put the root to it.

I thought you could an information in your way to be a better player. You can. So we start on A flat major. Just even what happens on the F7 chord, the second chord, that's like a F7 to a B flat 7. Like knowing how to get around using that phrase, that's everything. And the entire thing is packed full of examples like that. It's a solo.

The entire head could be a solo. Yeah. Exactly right. Do you want to talk about what's in there? I mean, I think for the timing of like when you're adding in some chromaticism, that's a recurring theme on this. So you can kind of learn that analyze. It's not, you know, the first, you know.

Yeah, there's that little E natural in there. Yeah. To make you land on the E flat on B1. Right. And then you've got some playing over the bar line, the chord bar line already. Yep. Because this is still still on A flat. major, but we're already on F7 down here.

But it works. A flat major. Now we catch up in the right end. That's right. And same thing. We're still on on that F7, but then it catches up. It's like for the beginning. People think, I'll wait and play over the bar line the second chorus.

Well, the melody does it in the second bar. Yeah. And if you go on, like to the next phrase. A little, is that enclosure? Surrounding. Help, I'm surrounded. Yeah, you're surrounded. A dramatic enclosure. A dramatic enclosure. Dramatic, chromatic. And then jazz arpeggio up to the 11th. Exactly right. Lots of jazz arpeggios. Yep. Yeah. Tritone sub in the just in the melody. Just that on a

251 to put a tritone sub. Yep. A little repetition from that first phrase. Yeah. Ending on the sharp 11. It's just we could do this all day. You could do this all day. It is a perfect B-Bob lesson. By the way, it's not the only one. You can look at things like confirmation, blues for Alice, these bebop tunes are a great way to learn bebop. You don't have to transcribe solos. Just learn the heads to the tunes. Newsflash. Newsflash. Practice bebop tunes to learn

Bbop. I know. It seems revolutionary. But it does feel like more for whatever reason, like sort of the Bbop idiom or genre, some of these melodies are even more instruct. Like if you learn the... Indiana. What do you get from that? All you're getting is the

Panatonic, which is fine. Yeah. But you're not getting any of that other fun stuff. You know, you can get that, but you have to dive a little deeper. Now, Peter, if we wanted to work on our rhythm, I think our second selection, and maybe you could drive the bus on this on the playlist. Serenade to a bus street.

Our second selection is a Thelonese Monk composition called Evidence. Yeah. Oh, I like this version of you got. This is from a very big Carnegie Hall. Live at Carnegie Hall with John Coltrane. You want to learn about syncopation. This tune is where it's at. Yeah, what's up and what's down?

end of ones. And that's where it can start, right? Oh, absolutely. Just tapping the rhythm to yourself is a rhythm lesson, especially in syncopation. And by the way, just like Donnelly's not the only bebop tune where you're going to learn how to play and get around chords with bebop, evidence is not the only monk tune. We're going to learn how to syncopate quarter notes essentially. And it is so useful that if you just learned, say, five Thelonious monk compositions, your rhythm would be markedly better by the end of that project. Just learn them. Just learn the rhythms.

Absolutely. Learn the tunes, and you will have a better understanding of quarter-notes incubation, of swing, and of how this genius crafted these incredible melodies. And you'll be good to go, as they say. Yeah, and I think on this one in particular, probably more so than any monk tune I can think off at the top of my head, the rhythmic information, the rhythmic instruction and knowledge that you can derive from it, is really based around the simple concept of

down B versus upbeat in terms of the eighth note, right? One, two, well, it's quarter notes here, but it's do, do, do, get, bop. Like those first two notes, so you go, pop, the first one's on the end of one, and then it's on one. Two, pop, pop.

So first bar, end of one, second bar on the one. That's right. And then everything else is a variation on that and extension on that. If you can understand and feel and be able to execute the differences between those. Like there end up being a lot of different variations

that seem like they're leaving that, but they're actually not. It's still like even Babu Dopp. Like Babu Dap is down up, right? So you just got some little bit more information in between it. But the rhythmic shell of it is down up, just like it starts out up, down. So what's the difference between them?

What do they feel like when they're all down? What do they feel like when you're moving? from down to up. And then also, I would say, sort of a secondary instruction is having the rhythmic or really kind of groove patience to time things out. Yeah, groove patience. Yeah, groove patience. GP, you got to get your GP together, man. Bop. Bob. Like, it's so easy to be like, oh, that's easy. You just wait and then play it on the one. But how many times we hear people play? Dap, pop. Yeah, it's too early. That's wrong. You see, look, I like, you got dog, you're like, no, go to the back of the line, sir. It doesn't feel right. Yeah. It doesn't feel right.

Bob. Like, oh, man, once you start to get that and repeat that and kind of, you know, revel in that, like good things happen. For sure. Our third example of a tune that's somewhat of a lesson, you know, one of the most challenging things, especially for beginners to get, is the tritone substitution, right? Or that approaching a chord from a dominant chord a half step above. And our third tune, which is Zizigalaspe's A Knight in Tunisia.

Tunisia. I pronounce every vowel of Tunisia. is a great example in the melody of how you might approach that. At least the first way you might approach that. Maybe Peter, you could play a little bit. Well, you know what's another great example of it? Is this track, A Night in Tunisia?

Okay, let's listen. I hurt my feelings. Sensitive Sammy. Even that. Even that intro. So swinging. How to just turn this switch on. That was no dial.

That was like grooving, Latin groove? Swing! Yeah, I know. It's like, bam. back again. But, you know, if you have this E flat seven, it's E flat seven to a D minor seven. We can do it a little chordy here, Caleb.

Sharp 11. That's right. And that's where that line starts on. Right? So in the melody itself, it teaches you how to approach that. It's like a B flat minor major seven shape that you're going to ascend as you go up to that nine of B flat.

Even though, you know, the chord is E flat seven sharp 11, it's in that B-flat melodic minor ascending mode. And that's what Dizzy is outlining in that melody. And even in that intro of the babu-daboo-daboo-daboo-dab-dab. That harmonically teaches you how to approach. Exactly. So really good lesson on. And there's, again, this is not the only one for helping you with this.

Something like Well You Needin is also a great tune for, that's a monk tune. there's, what's the tune? Yeah, that's great. There's tons. There's tons of tunes that you can find that practice that half-step slide from the bottom, from the top-down. Yep, good.

It's a real top-down approach. It's a real top-down approach. Yeah, I want you to intro this next one. So next we have two tunes that are going to practice our fast modulations. So modulating from keys very, very fast. And the first is what we open the show with. Quick, core changes.

Quick, we're moving around. Well, well, we're changing. tonality. New York City here. So this is... New York. There's so much happening. So this is... Hey, it's me you're talking to. Victor Lewis tunes from 1993 recording that we had queued up in the intro. And

the tune starts, well, starts on a little pedal. But it goes from F major and then a 2-5 to D major and then a 2-5 to B-major and then a 2-5 to A-flat major. So you're

going from F to D to B to A-flat going down in minor thirds. Down in minor thirds. Let's listen to a little bit of that. A little cyclical thing. Little cyclical thing. And it does it again and again.

Can we listen to that recording from Victor Lewis and Chris McBride? A young Chris McBride? Introducing Shamous Blake on Tim Ferrace. Hey, you're talking to me? Hey, it's me you're talking to. Hey. There's a fun little aude this one. D.

B major. A flat. B major. B major. A flat. 2.5 back to F. That's the tune. It's a super fun ride, and it's great to practice

switching those keys in 2-5s. Back to that little interlude. C, sharp 11. The next example we have is a more famous example. You could, of course, use giant steps for a similar thing in major thirds. I like working through Countdown. Countdown is a contrafact on Tune.

up, Miles Davis's tune up, from John Coltrane. And it goes through three different two-fives, first in D, then in C, 25 to C, then a two-five to B-flat. And then there's a little tag at the end, a little E minor F to B-flat. But the way that Train used this is instead of going E-minor 7 for a bar, A-7 for a bar, can move the chordi up again? Yeah. Instead of going E-minor 7, A7, D major, Yep. Train did.

E minor 7, F7, B flat, D flat 7, G flat major, A7, D major. That's a fun little trip. So taking it through major thirds in 5-1. So again, you have the two-core, E-minor, but then 5-1 to B-flat, 5-1 to G-flat, and then finally 5-1 back to D. And then you do the same thing in the 2-5-C. Yes, D-minor, 5-1 to A-flat, 5-5-1 to E, 5-1 to C. and the same thing in the 25 to B flat. C minor, the two chord, 51 to G flat, 51 to D, 51 finally to B flat.

So it's a fun way to work on your coltrane changes. Super fun way to work through two five ones using that major third tonality shift approach. Let's listen to Brad Meldal's version of Countdown. Brad Who? And the melody itself can help you get there using these common tonalities. Again, just two fives in D and C and B flat

with those cold train changes. And then Brad just doing crazy shit. Yeah, doing his Brad shit. Incredible. He's doing his Brad shit. Yeah, exactly. Next up, Peter,

let's say that we want to learn some like pentatonic modal stuff. Let's go molo, bro. That's what they say. No, we want to go. No one ever. We want to go to the king. We want to go to the master.

We want to go to McCoy-Tiner. Got it. We want to go passion dance from the real McCoy. You could really use a ton of stuff from this album. You could use blues on the corner as a way into this as well.

You could also use like, Chikri is the Matrix is one we talk about a lot. But to get into modal playing, use these modal melodies. And passion dance is a great way into that. And the first thing that is teaching you right off the bat. Right off the bat. Don't be afraid. Like a lot of times people like, okay, I'm going C minor pentatonic, which is a great,

which is a great way to approach this, right? But that doesn't give you that. So like he's already showing you play around with that for the bow. we'll bet it, like that resolution and anti-resolution. Like all the information you need is in the first line. Both triads. Both triads, the F-tri and the E-Lat tri. That's that hexatonic scale we've talked about here before.

Yeah. It's hexi. It's hexi. It's not even sexy. It's a hexi MF. It's not pente. It's hexy. Anyway, I don't know. I don't know.

I was trying to stay with it and didn't work. You know, you can't land all the planes all the time. No, you just showed that. Peter. Let me ask a question, though, buddy. If you're a pilot, you need to, though. Man, just think about something. So great that we are not, let's make a list of things that it's good.

Just because of our act, like, we are very accurate. We're clearly an A-level podcast year. But we're not 100% accurate. Okay. We don't land everything. But let's talk about some jobs that you will be fired, if not apprehended, and put behind bars in a felonious manner. Surgeon.

Philonious monk manner. Surgeon? Right. Well, brain surgeon. Like hand surgeon, you can miss every now and then. Cosmetic surgeon? Cosmend, you can definitely miss a little bit. Botox surgeon, what is that?

That's a cosmetic surgeon, right? Spa treatment at this point, though. It is. Really? I got it this morning. Send me the link. I got touched up this morning. You look tight, man. You like tight A.F, man.

People don't realize I'm 73 years old. You look great. Yeah, thank you. Airline pilot or co-pilot, right? Anybody in a plane. No, I mean, a flight attendant. Or on the ground. Anybody working on a plane.

Yeah, mechanic. Mechanic. Yeah. Anyway, but I diverge. Okay, I'm interested in this next one you have on here because I, this is one that I wouldn't, I want to know your take on this because it wouldn't, like, if you were to press me, what is the lesson, what is the A-tude for around midnight by Philoni-Smuck? I know the tune.

I love the tune. I feel like I've learned a lot, but I couldn't pinpoint what it is. To me, it's, this is the ultimate tune of a lesson in how to play a ballot. And, Monk. Yeah, I know. So that could be any ballot. It could be a great ballot. Any great ballot.

I would put sophisticated lady up there as well. Some ballads play themselves. I would put Duke Ellington's or Billy Strayhorn's Lotus Blossom up there as well. Some tunes can play themselves. What, lush life? Lush life is definitely in this category. But to me, round midnight, the way the melody is written and the way the court changes work, it shows you the moves of how to navigate a great ballad.

Interesting. Even on, like, if you were to do a Gershwin ballad, you could use some of the lessons that you learn here with the phrasing that Monk has that I think it's different than a pop ballad or an American like a mid-century pop ballad, a gas ballad. We swore we were never going to say gas again, but here we are. Oh, it's a gas. So maybe sort of the prototype of a jazz standard ballot. I think so.

Let's check it out. Everybody learned the intro. It's good. This is the original version from Genius. Genius Modern Music. Like the tune. kind of walks itself. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And the walking ballad is a walking ballad is a lost art that we talked about a lot around here. This to me, it teaches you that as does things like sophisticated lady, as does lush life, as does innocent and mental mood. You know what I mean?

Like the way that the melody and the changes are laid out for, specifically around midnight and those other jazz ballads that we mentioned, to me they, and also it gives you, man, there's so much goodness in here. But it gives you a great understanding of some ways, to use harmony that aren't in the Great American Songwork standards. Like the way that

Monk chromatically shifts around in some of the changes. The entire bridge is a lesson on how to shift harmony around in a way that jazz musicians tend to love. I think if you want to be a jazz pianist, you have to like all roads lead through Monk at some point. Absolutely. He was a true harmony head.

He was a harmony head. Look out. Look out. Spoiler. Finally, Peter, we've got one more here. Yes. This is really kind of the most underground tune we picked, really a... Well, it's from a hard-to-find record.

It's out of print in several countries, including America. Right. So you can't really find it anymore. You can find that on vinyl in, like, New York, in a couple of dusty places for about $230 for a copy. It's called Kind of Blue. Oh.

You ever heard of? No, I've picked this one because, to me, this was a personal lesson when I learned this song, like from the record, and I learned about those voicings that Bill Evans plays. You mean the so what voicings? They're literally called the so what voicings. This is so what.

And we'll go out on this. So your approach on this, this is interesting. So I was, because I was just like, well, we kind of already covered moldal playing with passion dance, but this is about voicing. And specifically voicings and even comping, like the way that Bill interacts with Miles and his solo. Yeah. And the way that he uses those modal voiceminal voicing.

I think is, first of all, it's really easy to hear on this album. Yeah. So like if you're a beginner and you want to learn how to play some D minor voicings that move around a bit, it's baked into the tune. Yep. There it is. And it's suggestive that of. It suggested that you can take that shape and move it around which ding, ding, ding,

you can. Right. Take it, take that shape and just move it around through that D-Dorian scale. And then it forces you into the chromatic movement, which would be your, nuts place to go. Totally right. So what? Those are the so what voicings.

And they're beautiful voicings. They are. Stack of fourths with third on top. It's a beautiful. There's a symmetry and a beauty there. There's a modality. So those are our seven, Peter. We've got bebop.

We've got rhythm. We've got how to deal with a tritone substitution or a half-step slide. We've got how to deal with very fast modulations. Quickly, quickly moving. Quarkly. Hey, it's me you're talking to in countdown. Yep. We had, what else?

Passion dance. Some modal playing. Learn that head to passion dance. You'll have a leg up on how to play over one chord. We had ballads with around midnight, round midnight, as well as, like we said, sophisticated lady and lotus blossom and in a sentimental mood. And then if you want to get some easy voicings,

that sound great over one chord. Mandatory voicings. You got to know them. Yep. Until next time. You'll hear it. Okay. He's still using it.

You know,