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Minimalism


Hardbopjazz

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oliver Nelson.

In fact, he sometimes plays so few, but well chosen notes, that I have to suspect that some of his solos are pre-composed! Most notably, his solo on "Stolen Moments".

Almost certainly they were worked out beforehand.

Maybe pre-composed solos would be a good topic for a thread. Don't know if this has been discussed here before.

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Oliver Nelson.

In fact, he sometimes plays so few, but well chosen notes, that I have to suspect that some of his solos are pre-composed! Most notably, his solo on "Stolen Moments".

Almost certainly they were worked out beforehand.

Maybe pre-composed solos would be a good topic for a thread. Don't know if this has been discussed here before.

In the classical music threads :)

But seriously, I can't think of many actual instances within the jazz tradition. Third stream music perhaps? I have read where composers have made arrangements based on famous solos. In other words. where previously improvised solos were re-contextualised. I remember reading about David Murray doing this kind of thing with the famous Paul Gonsalves solo from Newport, but never heard the results, so not sure whether this was an approximation of Gonsalves original solo or not.

On the other hand, many of my favourite soloists are often accused of playing the same lines over and over again, so kind of another take on the idea of pre-composed soloing :g

don't

like

minimalists

Minimalist

paintings

are

really

BIG

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Ayler was influential in making me wary of the dangers that can befall a jazz musician. After all, his body was found floating in the river. That’s what I was thinking of when I wrote ‘Flowers for Albert’, but everyone heard the tune and all of a sudden decided I sounded just like Albert Ayler. But I never turned Albert’s solo back to 16 RPM so I could transcribe them and play them not-for-note the way I did with Paul [Gonsalves]’s 27 choruses on Duke’s Diminuendo and Cresendo in Blue’ or Coleman Hawkins’s ‘Body and Soul’, or lots of other things.

From: Francis Davis, (1986). In the moment: jazz in the 1980s. New York, Oxford University Press, page 47

http://wallofsound.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/misunderstanding-%E2%80%98flowers-for-albert%E2%80%99/

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Ayler was influential in making me wary of the dangers that can befall a jazz musician. After all, his body was found floating in the river. That’s what I was thinking of when I wrote ‘Flowers for Albert’, but everyone heard the tune and all of a sudden decided I sounded just like Albert Ayler. But I never turned Albert’s solo back to 16 RPM so I could transcribe them and play them not-for-note the way I did with Paul [Gonsalves]’s 27 choruses on Duke’s Diminuendo and Cresendo in Blue’ or Coleman Hawkins’s ‘Body and Soul’, or lots of other things.

From: Francis Davis, (1986). In the moment: jazz in the 1980s. New York, Oxford University Press, page 47

http://wallofsound.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/misunderstanding-%E2%80%98flowers-for-albert%E2%80%99/

Oh, just transcribing. I thought I read somewhere else, David Murray talking about actually making arrangements, based on those choruses. Maybe he never got around to it. Obviously a solo close to his heart. Perhaps the Stanley Crouch influence from his early days.

Well, my memory serves OK.

My link

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Oliver Nelson.

In fact, he sometimes plays so few, but well chosen notes, that I have to suspect that some of his solos are pre-composed! Most notably, his solo on "Stolen Moments".

Almost certainly they were worked out beforehand.

Maybe pre-composed solos would be a good topic for a thread. Don't know if this has been discussed here before.

If I'm right about Nelson's sometime approach as a soloist, I think it had to do with his basically compositional/orderly temperament rather than any lack of inspiration. Sounded to me like he'd grasped ahead of time how to make his part of the performance build to a more or less orchestral climax and just went ahead and forcefully realized that conception. It could sound a bit studied, as in fact it was, but there were compensations, particularly on his fine album "Afro-American Sketches."

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  • 4 months later...

John Lewis, though some might say he leans towards the simplistic rather than the simple.

Sonny Clark, Grant Green, Horace Parlan, Kenny Dorham, George Lewis (trombone) come to mind.

I'm listing to Whistle Stop and trying to figure what's special about Kenny Dorham. What's 'his' sound?

When I read the post by 'mjzee' and suddenly understood this is a major part of Mr. Dorham's sound... minimalist, precise, small yet large, and non effusive. Yessir, this is what makes him memorable & enjoyable.

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George Freeman.

MG

George Freeman. Really?

He always sounds hyperactive to me. Like he's swatting flies from the fingerboard. Love his playing though. Massively under-documented musician. On record and film.

Oh yes. Try his intro to the blues track on the Jimmy McGriff/Lucky Thompson 'Friday the 13th' live album on Groove Merchant, or 'Introducing George Freeman with Charlie Earland sitting in' or practically any ballad. Bob Porter thought he did the best intros of anyone, but he took forever to get going :)

If you look at it right (or one way, anyway), those 'swatting flies' bits ARE the spaces.

MG

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