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Favorite bit o' Larry Young


Soul Stream

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I haven't put on much Larry Young in while. However, was listening today. Aside from the obvious remarks about originality, I really enjoy certain rhythmic things and pet finger patterns he leans on as a basis to his style. Can't point out a single passage right now, but wondered if anybody had any particular passages of Larry Young. Not neccessarily a whole tune, but that's cool too....

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Then there's the chord thing he does on a dominant chord with three "SUS" sounding voicings. You know, hard to explain, but two voices half step up, then back, then down, and then does the same on another chord. Like on "Tyrone". At least Jim knows what I'm trying to say...

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hmm, shouldn't this be moved to Musicians' forum Jim? some of this is way over my head, interesting, but wouldn't it be better in the musicians forum area? now I'm gonna go listen to that "Luny Tune" solo and see if I can get a handall on what y'all are Talkin About :D

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Guest akanalog

i like the end of the second song on "lawrence of newark" which might be the title track actually. it is a long tune. towards the end everyone locks in-so there are like 10 drummers locked into this groove and then larry young starts playing this sort of funky distorted riffs and someone is yelling-perhaps larry young himself. but it rocks.

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hmm, shouldn't this be moved to Musicians' forum Jim? some of this is way over my head, interesting, but wouldn't it be better in the musicians forum area? now I'm gonna go listen to that "Luny Tune" solo and see if I can get a handall on what y'all are Talkin About  :D

CJ,

Although a few of the answers may sound a little "music-speak", my intention wasn't a "musicians only" question. Feel free to quote index points such as "1:26-1:47" in a song to show what passage you want to show.

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Mike, I'm talking about at the very end of the tune, after the head-out.

Oh, yes. That's very cool. Gonna have to figure that one out. Thanks for pointing it out. Larry's really blowing at the end of his solo on Ritha amazing.

Still, one of the most amazing Larry Young solos to me his his complete and utter destruction of Talkin' About J.C. off the Talkin' Bout album. His solo on that is just jaw dropping. And it goes on and on and on and on..... :D

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It's actually very easy. You build the chord in fourths starting on the E. So the chord would be E, A, D, and G on top, all evenly spaced. Then hold the G where it is, and move the bottom three notes up to F, Bb, and Eb. Then move them up again to G, C, and F while still holding that top G.

Voila! Instant Larry Young nuttiness! :)

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It's actually very easy.  You build the chord in fourths starting on the E.  So the chord would be E,  A, D, and G on top, all evenly spaced.  Then hold the G where it is, and move the bottom three notes up to F, Bb, and Eb.  Then move them up again to G, C, and F while still holding that top G. 

Voila!  Instant Larry Young nuttiness! :)

Thanks Jim...that first EAD/G is a hell of a stretch. Larry must've had huge hands to do that sort of thing constantly. I've got big hands, but it's still uncomfortable on that first set of intervals.

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He could've, but from everything I've read, Larry was a big guy and did have large hands. I don't think he'd have any problems hitting that interval.

Also, the standard jazz organ settings differ from the upper manual and lower manual, so playing that one note on the lower and everything else on the upper would cause that note to stick out... or actually not stick out, due to the registration. It would get buried. And it's definitely in there.

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The type of playing Jim is referring too...well, it's technically not easy and you would need to be used to making those sort of stretches routinely, but Larry Young was Larry Young. His whole style was based on this sort of chordal, harmonic nuttiness (for lack of a better term).

Beautiful stuff. But it gives me a hand cramp just thinking of holding those sort of stretches constantly. :blink:

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He could've, but from everything I've read, Larry was a big guy and did have large hands.  I don't think he'd have any problems hitting that interval. 

Also, the standard jazz organ settings differ from the upper manual and lower manual, so playing that one note on the lower and everything else on the upper would cause that note to stick out... or actually not stick out, due to the registration.  It would get buried.  And it's definitely in there.

Speaking as a pianist, the problem with that interval isn't the stretch, but the interior fingering! I can come close to hitting that minor tenth, but with the fingers in between equally spaced a fourth apart? Forget it!

I meant that the bass note would be played on the lower BUT the same hand would also be playing the lowest note of the voicing (the E) on the upper manual. Then the right hand would just have to play a McCoy-style fourth voicing (the A, D, G).

Edited by Big Wheel
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As much as I love Larry Young, any attempts by me to play in that bag have always been pretty sophomoric and unconvincing. I love to listen and do pick up some of what he's doing, but to integrate that into the JOS bag is pretty ridiculous. You're either in Larry's thing or you ain't it seems. I know Jim really knows Young's concept. Adam Scone is also very, very convincing in that style as I've seen him rip "Monk's Dream" "Talkin' Bout J.C" and others to a ridiculous degree.

But as for me...uhhh.... :bad:

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Larry on "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" on Unity is mind-blowing. And I feel like he had a lot more to say, I mean simultaneously, not necessarily stretching it out, but there just wasn't any way to do it since he only had two arms and hands. It's like Trane that way. The entire tune is amazing, the way it builds, and Joe and Woody play their role perfectly to build it up just right for Larry's entrance. I only wish it was a little longer.

And to think that when I first got Unity I always skipped over that track ...

Well, I guess I didn't exactly answer the question ...

BTW, does anyone know much about Anthony Coleman, the organizst on Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans ?

Edited by johnagrandy
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