The ‘kin way in
(If you’ve gorrit already, go dig it aaaaaaaaaat again)
What does mine say?. Dude. What does mine say?. Sweet. What does mine say?. Dude. What does mine say?. Sweet. YEH BUT WHAT DOES MINE SAY?… So yeh I ditched my job the other week. I lasted a month, but that particular morning I walked in, and decided (mainly because of what those nasty men said about Jazz) that i’m better off pottering about instead of working, so I went home. Due to the extra time on my hands, I thought i’d do two Jazz things this month! “yeh Ben you’re so good to sacrifice time normally spent on Match.com, to benefit Jazz instead” I hear you all shout. It’s ok though. Who needs women when you have a good set of speakers and KONITZ MEETS MULLIGAN ON PACIFIC JAZZ RECORDS..
Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet: Konitz meets Mulligan (1953)
Too marvelous for words
Lover man
I’ll remember april
These foolish things
All the things you are
Bernie’s tune
Almost like being in love
Sextet
Broadway
I can’t believe that you’re in love with me
Lady be good
Lady be good (alternate take)
Alto Sax: Lee Konitz
Baritone Sax: Gerry Mulligan
Trumpet: Chet Baker
Bass: Carson Smith (1-9); Joe Mondragon (10-12)
Drums: Larry Bunker
“Where the f… is the Piano or Guitar to put down the chords????”- well we aint got one. S’all about the lines n ‘kin counterpoint..
I wanted to check this with y’all before we headed off to a different decade cos it kind of ties in the last two features. Both Mulligan and Konitz played on all of the “Birth of the cool” sessions for Miles, and then of course Konitz was Tristano’s weapon of choice, and main student through the late 40’s and 50’s- featuring on “Lennie Tristano” that we looked at last month.
I had track 11- Lady be good, when I was younger on a kind of “modern playaz do Gershwin” record, but this album was proper introduced to me by the sickly talented Kit Downes (winner of “Rising star” at the BBC Jazz awards last month- hoorah congrats!, and pianist with, amongst many other things, Empirical) CHECK THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM!.. Now Kit was kind enough to give me some lessons last year to put me on the right track with my Jazz playing, and one of his first tasks for me was to transcribe (write down from ear) Lee Konitz’zz’zz’zz solo on Track 5. All the things you are.. I love this number as a harmonic sequence, but the thought of attempting this made me feel ill. However it soon became an obsession, and I did it,and I can NEARLY play it too. The beauty of transcribing is that rather than just listening to it and enjoying it, you get to see WHY it’s good. You see the shapes of the lines, how he arrives at the improvised melodies from the pre-existing harmony, and for me the best bit was checking out the phrasing. I knew it was good when I heard it, but now I could argue in a ‘kin court of law why it’s good. “WE FIND LEE KONITZ GUILTY OF RELENTLESS AMAZING IMPROVISED LINES”
Not that Gezza and Chetto aren’t ace too. They have to be really cos this line up has nothing to put chords down, so you’ll hear a mixture of single lines, weaving in and out of each other, which then lets you know where we’re at with the harmony. Relating to that comment last month- “Jazz is just six people playing a different tune”- it’s not random twiddling. You see if I was to play a chord, and asked you to start singing Happy Birthday or something, from that chord you’d know where to start. You’d then sing your line according to the harmony (my chords) until we reached the end together. Here there’s no chords, so you only know “where” the tunes going (as a listener), by the bass players choice of notes, which is then accentuated by counterpoint. On top you have the soloist using this harmonic pattern to inform their own melodies. When they drift away to their own world and back again, it’s then perfectly fine to go “YEH” at a Jazz gig! ANYWAY- less of the dark stuff, but Konitz is well quoted of his intimidation sometimes by pianists. He’s just stood there with an Alto sax playing single melodies, whereas a pianist has so much more on tap.
Highlights for me are All the things you are, Sextet, and Lady be good. The bass on the head of “Lady be good” is so phat. I used to bang it through my car’s system when stationary at traffic lights. A sure fire way to get honey’z!
Best listened to: 80000000000 times over and over again in small sections, transcribing it for yourself under the tutorage of Kit Downes.
