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07-17-2009, 12:16 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: San Diego, California | | | Your favorite real book tunes, and how you approach them?
The quartet that I play in is looking for a few new tunes to expand our repertoire, and I thought I'd ask you guys what your favorite tunes are, and if you have a special way of approaching them, or any nuances you like to put throughout the piece.
A few of our favorites are "Footprints", "I've Never Been in Love Before", and "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing".
We play footprints with a drum/bass solo intro, with a mix of tiny bits of the melody, and the printed bass line.
I've never been, we take once through as a two feel, and then bust out into a common time feel with a trumpet solo, and then back into a giant melody. We always try to make our solos as "singer-like" as possible on this song, as it's a broadway tune.
It don't mean a thing, I make extensive use of pedal points. It really opens it up for the rest of the group, and adds solidity to the structure IME.
Go for it!
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07-17-2009, 12:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | Not to unduly harsh, but I wish I had a 5 second mpeg of me putting my forehead in my hands and shaking my head slowly.
Cranky old man stuff aside, I am happy that you are finding some joy in playing this music that brings me so much joy.
This, too, shall pass...
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07-17-2009, 01:28 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Minneapolis St Paul, Minnesota | | | quiet now - if you want to make some people weep after the "college tunes", bust this one out.
other than that, i think you just have to go see other bands, search on youtube, etc. and see what approaches people take. then take that with the tunes that are common in your scene and do somethin' different. like, autumn leaves as a bossa for example (KIDDING) |
07-17-2009, 01:29 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Marvelous, Texas | | | The key is to learn as many tunes as possible, period. Then add your own nuance. Also, it doesn't hurt to listen to and try to learn the arrangements of the past (ie, Miles intro on Autumn leaves, Jamal's arrangement of Moonlight in Vermont, etc.) The larger your vocabulary from an historical framework, the more your music communicates with other players. In short, do your homework! |
07-17-2009, 02:56 PM
|  | Best Upright Guitarrón (UG) player in my house. | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Idyllwild, California | | | Softly, As a Morning Sunrise
I've especially liked this tune since hearing PC's version of it. It has a catchy, lilting, haunting sort of melody that is somewhere between upbeat and melancholy, if that's possible. You'd have fun with the bass opening and closing heads, if you play it like PC did.
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07-17-2009, 03:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Louisville, KY | | Quote:
Originally Posted by chancletarock  like, autumn leaves as a bossa for example (KIDDING) | LOL I once got hired to play with a steel drum band group at a golf course and sure enough they pulled this one out!  |
07-17-2009, 03:27 PM
| | Supporting Member | | Join Date: May 2009 Location: Dallas | | | "Come fly with Me"
"Autumn Leaves"
"Fly me to the Moon"
"Continuum"
to name a few
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07-17-2009, 07:24 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Savannah GA | | | Horace Silver
If you like ballads: Horace Silver's Peace is probably in your Real Book. His Lonely Woman (not Ornette's) probably isn't, but you can hunt it down.
Since you like pedal points, why not Aisha? |
07-17-2009, 10:17 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | You mean, NAIMA?
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"It takes a pretty great drummer to be better than no drummer" -Chet Baker
BECAUSE AWESOME CAT IS AWESOME!!!!!
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07-18-2009, 10:31 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Savannah GA | | | Indeed
Yes I did. D'oh! |
07-18-2009, 02:48 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Boulder, CO | | | Blues For Alice and Solar are a couple of my favorites. |
07-18-2009, 04:27 PM
|  | Official Forum Flunkee | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA | | | lol. Just arrange it however it makes you feel excited about playing it. Inversely, it's kinda of a drag watching guys playing music they're not into as well as playing with them.
At times I feel playing jazz is kinda like guys pretending they're their own basketball heroes. Kinda like reliving a childhood fantasy or something. "Oooh look at me, I'm Ron Carter burning it up with my buddy who is playing Jim Hall's part". Of course I'm nowhere nearly as good but it's can be fun to pretend. |
07-18-2009, 05:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: San Diego, California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by hdiddy lol. Just arrange it however it makes you feel excited about playing it. Inversely, it's kinda of a drag watching guys playing music they're not into as well as playing with them.
At times I feel playing jazz is kinda like guys pretending they're their own basketball heroes. Kinda like reliving a childhood fantasy or something. "Oooh look at me, I'm Ron Carter burning it up with my buddy who is playing Jim Hall's part". Of course I'm nowhere nearly as good but it's can be fun to pretend. |
I totally know what you mean! I wasn't looking for huge detailed arrangements of all of your favorites, I just wanted to add some ideas to our musical vocabulary; all part of growing, yes? |
07-19-2009, 01:38 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Minneapolis St Paul, Minnesota | | Quote:
Originally Posted by hdiddy At times I feel playing jazz is kinda like guys pretending they're their own basketball heroes. Kinda like reliving a childhood fantasy or something. "Oooh look at me, I'm Ron Carter burning it up with my buddy who is playing Jim Hall's part". Of course I'm nowhere nearly as good but it's can be fun to pretend. | uh you are the man. that totally sums up my more cynical approach to the jazz scene. i have other approaches, too (including really positive ones), but this is the one that manifests after you play with cats like the ones you mentioned. aaaaaaaaaaaamen. |
07-29-2009, 09:35 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Celina, OH | | I won't be a grumpy cynical jazz musician 
Why not see if any jazz books you have have lists of essential tunes. |
07-30-2009, 12:48 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Seattle, WA | | | Go to the library and check out some CDs, listen and see what songs you like. Or get together with your bandmates and listen and see what everyone likes. That's where the magic is. It makes no difference what we like.
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07-30-2009, 01:03 AM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Beast The quartet that I play in is looking for a few new tunes to expand our repertoire, and I thought I'd ask you guys what your favorite tunes are, and if you have a special way of approaching them, or any nuances you like to put throughout the piece.
A few of our favorites are "Footprints", "I've Never Been in Love Before", and "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing".
We play footprints with a drum/bass solo intro, with a mix of tiny bits of the melody, and the printed bass line.
I've never been, we take once through as a two feel, and then bust out into a common time feel with a trumpet solo, and then back into a giant melody. We always try to make our solos as "singer-like" as possible on this song, as it's a broadway tune.
It don't mean a thing, I make extensive use of pedal points. It really opens it up for the rest of the group, and adds solidity to the structure IME.
Go for it! | I haven't played the tune in years, but I haven't played a strictly jazz gig in years, but we used to have a lot of fun with Rahsann Roland Kirks Blues Underneath (Funk Underneath). The tune starts out, if I remember, in a major mode and kind of morphs in to a blues progression. Our sax man did a great job on it, and we'd turn the middle of the tune in a funky blues.
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07-30-2009, 03:03 AM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Beast The quartet that I play in is looking for a few new tunes to expand our repertoire, and I thought I'd ask you guys what your favorite tunes are, and if you have a special way of approaching them, or any nuances you like to put throughout the piece.
A few of our favorites are "Footprints", "I've Never Been in Love Before", and "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing".
We play footprints with a drum/bass solo intro, with a mix of tiny bits of the melody, and the printed bass line.
I've never been, we take once through as a two feel, and then bust out into a common time feel with a trumpet solo, and then back into a giant melody. We always try to make our solos as "singer-like" as possible on this song, as it's a broadway tune.
It don't mean a thing, I make extensive use of pedal points. It really opens it up for the rest of the group, and adds solidity to the structure IME.
Go for it! | This is a lot easier to approach when you're playing a lot of the same tunes with the same people fairly often. I don't know that the similarities that can emerge when we've been playing like that are necessarily a good thing.
Everyone's take on jazz is a bit different, but most of the time I'd prefer to hear what's going on when the tune is being played and work with that. Might take away some of the possibilities I had in my head when the tune was first called, but others replace the ones that aren't there anymore.
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07-30-2009, 03:21 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | I'm not sure if you were asking this - but if you are looking for interesting tunes in Real Books - one that struck me was Harold Land's "Rapture" from the Sher book - such a nice tune that I sought out the original recording on CD and was very pleasantly surprised! 
(Waits for withering comments ....  )
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07-30-2009, 11:15 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: San Diego, California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield I'm not sure if you were asking this - but if you are looking for interesting tunes in Real Books - one that struck me was Harold Land's "Rapture" from the Sher book - such a nice tune that I sought out the original recording on CD and was very pleasantly surprised!
(Waits for withering comments .... ) | Exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I'll be sure to check it out! |  | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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