The TUNE DISCUSSION Thread

ask me now sounds great. two of my favorite takes are by joe henderson trio without a chordal instrument. it is on state of the tenor with ron carter on bass, and al foster on drums. the second is on an evening with joe henderson with charlie haden on bass, and al foster on drums. an evening with joe henderson is hard to get a ahold of, so maybe i'll post that take for people to check out. both amazing tracks and its great to hear how different ron and charlie sound with the same group. any other recommendations for tracks to check out? i guess monk's version should be the first place to look...

 

Nice tune... this will be fun.

That sounds tasty.

Joe Henderson must really like this tune because he also plays it as a duet with McCoy Tyner on McCoy's New York Reunion.
It's also on Paul Motian & the Electric Be-Bop Band's Reincarnation Of A Lovebird which has Steve Swallow on electric.

Pete, you should put a link to this thread in the TUNE LIST Thread.

 

Excellent - I don't 'know' Bernie's tune (I've just played it from charts), and I can't recall ever having played, or maybe even heard 'Ask Me Now.'

I'm on it...

Andy

 

Bernies......
Just an AABA type D minor tune. Bridge is just a couple turn arounds in Bb Major, resolving back to D m. I play the rhythm figure with the lead Db B....Db B.

 

This is a pretty rendition of Ask Me Now. I thought I saw a Monk clip of Ask Me Now on youtube but now I can't find it.

 

Also, it makes more sense to write out the tune in the key of Db to reduce the number of accidentals.

 

Hey Pete-
Are we moving on to 2 more tunes this week?

Edit: I just saw the update. Cool.

 

Hey guys- how's everyone doing so far with the tunes? This is really fun. I learned Bernie's Tune and Ask Me Now, already knew Invitation, and am working on All Or Nothing At All and How My Heart Sings, which I used to know.
I didn't get to Strode Road; I don't even know what that tune is; never heard it or heard it called. I'll check it out at some point.
Btw, I'm also learning the melodies. Are you guys doing this too? Ask Me Now is great with the bow in thumb position, if a bit challenging especially the high E.

 

Here's what I got for "All Or Nothing At All"; I transcribed it from a Betty Carter record where she does it duo with Dave Holland.
Since this tune has been done in several keys, I'm going to write it out in numbers to make it easier to transpose. The key on the Betty Carter record is Emin/Gmaj.

AABA form:

Emin/same /same / same/
Emin/ /F7/same /
Dmin7/same /Amin/same /
Amin7/D7/Gmaj/F#min7b5 B7/

Emin/same /same / same/
Emin/ /F7/same /
Dmin7/same /Amin/same /
Amin7/D7/Gmaj/Fmin7 Bb7/

Eb/same/same/Fmin7 Bb7/
Eb/same/same/Bb7/
Fmin7/Bb7/Fmin7/dmin7b5 G7/
Cmin/A7/Ab7/B7/

Emin/same /same / same/
Emin/ /F7/same /
Dmin7/same /Amin/same /
Amin7/D7/Gmaj/F#min7b5 B7/


What tunes do we have for this week?

 

Oh yeah, for sure. I don't think you really know a tune without knowing the melody and if there are any the lyrics too. Lately I'm learning the melody in a couple of keys (the common one and then one I'm comfortable singing it in) before I even look seriously at the harmony and it's taking a lot of the frustration out of learning tunes.

 

Didn't notice this until now! I'm doing a little gig with some friends as a sort of Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker piano-less quartet - Bari,Trumpet, Me on DB and drums!

This is one we're doing - I like these up-tempo tunes for this quartet - much harder playing ballads with no piano and just me!

The ones that gets me is "Song for Strayhorn" - so there is so much pedal D on bass that there is inevitably a point in solos where there is some 'uncertainty' ....

But anyway - who was "Bernie"...?

 

This is NOT an 'up tune'. Medium bounce. I think Bernie was a disc jock.

 

Right, like the Coltrane version.

I already know this week's tunes, so I'll be working on some others.

 

Well - yes I've got it as swing 160 - I just meant it wasn't a ballad - it seems tough doing a ballad in a quartet with no piano, whereas this kind of tune at 140-160, works pretty well!

 

It helps to incorporate some double stops ala Red Mitchell on some slower stuf, ya know?

 

The author of Bernie's Tune is Bernie Miller.

I generally like that tune between 180-200bpm with a little fire in it but it can swing like crazy at about 160bpm.