JSngry Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 After 30 years, I STILL can't figure out what's up w/that melody. Sure, once you get through it, it's "Cherokee". But WTF is going on with that melody? It's ain't based on the blowing changes, and the rhythmic/melodic contour is more Ornette-y than Ornette. Bird was hearing something WAY different when he came up w/this one! Does anybody have any insight on where that thing came from? To me, it's the ultimate in bebop esoterica and inscrutability, speaking from a purely musical standpoint. Go ahead. Sing/play it and tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE and how it relates even remotely to "Cherokee". Or anything else, for that matter. And btw - I LOVE this head. Be Bop coming from a place like this is the HARDEST bop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 It certainly IS different. Do you think Diz had a big hand here? Just wondering. I've no deep insight to offer. Diz was there in the studio and. . . well. . . I had to come up with SOMETHING to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 (edited) Maybe. I don't know. My hunch would be no, though, just because, as convoluted as Diz could get rhythmically, his ideas were usually firmly rooted in harmonic patterns, and the head to "KoKo" doesn't REALLY give you any "easy" changes to put underneath it (I've heard a 70s Lionel Hampton big band arrangement where they use stacked fourths - if I recall it right - and clusters on it!). And, really, after that final "blee bleeeee bah doodle-oodle-oooooooh....ablee-bop......a-doodle-oodle-oooh-ba-debop", you by no means are obligated to go into "Cherokee" changes - you could start up on pertnear ANY tune. Or NO tune! The existence of a piece like this sorta makes you wonder if there were other such pieces floating around amongst the deepest of the deep boppers - things that really weren't "songs", or even "tunes", just self-contained statements that could stand alone as "non-melodic melodies", if you know what I mean. Just because they never got recorded or talked about over the years doen't necessarily mean that one or two guys didn't have some "private" material like this. Probably not, but you never know... It's Ornette before Ornette, I tell you! Edited February 26, 2004 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 Hey, I can hear you telling me Ornette before Ornette and not back away. There's a lot to that. I'm going to have to revisit some of the really late Bird because the last times I was listening to it I was hearing some Ornettish things a birthing. It could have just been me, but . . . I thought of Ornette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 I hear ya'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Hawkins Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 Funny - I was sitting at the keyboard for well on 2 hours with this MF yesterday thinking the exact same 'WTF'. Got nowhere..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 (edited) Could it be based on an American Indian melody of some sort that Bird felt was appropriate to play before Cherokee? Somebody must have thought to ask Dizzy Gillespie this question. No? Didn't you ever cross paths with Diz, Jim? Edited February 26, 2004 by John L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.