The horn is in flawless condition; no dents, dings.  It comes with two sets of bottom caps; weighted and regular.  Bauerfeind valves are the finest I’ve ever experienced plus they have a bit shorter throw then typical valves.  The slotting is exceptional.  You are physically moving less on incredibly smooth valves; it’s feels like cheating!

Bell bow tuning

This alleviates any gaps in the lead-pipe prior to the valve block, which makes the horn extremely even playing.  All the notes at the top of the staff feel the same.  This is the most “in tune” C trumpet I’ve ever played.  No need for false fingerings.

Polished gold plating

Gold adds to the value of the horn plus allows the horn to warm up faster than silver.  The density of the metal adds to the density and complexity of the sound.  There is slight wear on the finger buttons and the contact point under the bell.

Interchangeable lead-pipe system

The horn comes with six gold plated lead-pipes.

Valve Alignment

This alignment was done by Charlie Melk.  Not only do the valves perfectly match their ports when depressed, they now also match when open.  This process allows the horn to ring more on open partials and gives the horn more overall resonance.  I highly recommend this valve alignment process to any trumpet.

My asking price $4000, no case.

Unlike Rhythm Changes, “Scrapple” is usually performed in F major.  This also means that the Scrapple bridge will be in a different key than the Rhythm bridge.  This bridge begins on the third scale degree of the tonic chord.  So in this case the tonic is F so the first chord of the bridge is A7.  Once you know the first chord of the Rhythm bridge the rest is rather easy.  The 8-bar bridge consists of four dominant chords moving around the cycle.  I prefer to think of moving up a fourth for the next three changes with each chord lasting two measures each.  I know others prefer to think of moving around the cycle by moving down a fifth.  (Either way gets you the same result.)  Because of the symmetry, there are numerous possibilities for for substitutions thus making this particular bridge a pretty flexible vehicle for improvisation.  I encourage you to mix and match your tritone substitutions as well as subbing the ii for the V7.

The Scrapple bridge is written, A7 – D7 – G7 – C7.  Notice what happens when you sub in the tritone for the second and fourth chord – A7 – Ab7 – G7 – F#7; suddenly we have a nice chromatic downward movement.  You could obviously sub the first and third chord for a similar effect.  Another common thought process is to replace the first bar of each change with it’s corresponding ii.  You then get: Em7/A7 – Am7/D7 – Dm7/G7 – Gm7/C7.  Notice how that creates a Dominant to minor relationship.

The “A” sections of Scrapple are rather stagnant hovering around the tonic F, basically moving from the ii (Gmin7) to the V7 (C7).  Many players treat these 8-bars rather modally and/or use chromatic planing.

Finally, as far as the melody itself, there are some subtle differences among the different printed editions of Scrapple.  By the way, only the A sections have a written melody.  The bridge is improvised.  This tune has been recorded on dozens of occasions by dozens of musicians.  Normally I would say that the definitive version of the tune is the one recorded by the composer, but Bird himself recorded it about a half-dozen times and there are subtle differences within his own renditions.

Maiden Voyage

Recorded in 1965, Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” was a revolutionary tune because it consisted almost entirely of sus chords.   Studying “Maiden Voyage” is basically learning what options one can play on suspended chords.  Sus chords fall in the family of dominant function but Sus chords are dominant 7^th chords voiced with the notes 1,4,5,7 rather than 1,3,5,7.  For C7sus, you can play the C Mixolydian (dominant) scale but if you emphasize or hover around the 3^rd while the rhythm section is leaving the 3^rd out and playing the 4^th, you could sound pretty dissonant.  A number of players choose to play the C Dorian (minor) scale over a C7sus.  This way that problematic 3^rd is a whole-step away from the 4^th rather than a half-step.

The way Herbie voiced the opening D7sus in “Maiden Voyage”, was to play D (root) in the left hand and a C major triad in the right.  If we take this line of thinking a little further and think of two major triads stacked on top of each other D & C we get a poly chord, or bi-tonality.  I wrote an entire book devoted to exploring this concept in improvisation and an excerpt of it is here.  There are a few books out there on the concept of chromatic-triadic playing and I encourage you to check them out.  My book basically explores the relationship of two major triads a whole step apart and the different melodic lines than can be made with this information.

In a tune like “Maiden Voyage”, where the harmony consists entirely of sus chords, there is always the danger that the harmony will become too static and the music will lose its momentum.  In a case like this, you might want to use a little dissonance and let taste be your guide.  There is a lot of flexibility with Sus chords because while Dominant, ideas that fit in the major or minor realm work.  Plus, the openness of their sound lends itself nicely to more angular lines as well as chromatic scalular ideas.

Another substitution that brings a little dissonance is the Sus b9 scale.  This is like the Dorian (2^nd mode) except where Dorian is derived from Major the Sus b9 is derived from the melodic minor scale.

So to sum up; a few options to think about when playing Sus chords are -(Click on the scales to enlarge)

This progression is known as the ii-V-I (two-five-one).  There have been many, many jazz books written about this progression and Jamey Aebersold has dedicated more than a few play-a-long volumes to this topic.  I highly suggest that the curious improviser spend some time researching this topic and Jamey’s site would be a great place to start.  This is a huge topic so I am just going to give an overview in this post.

Jazz Theory 101

Here’s the short version: there are basically three types of chords in music (tonal, functional harmony) and roughly all chords, no matter how exotic, can be justified in one of these three categories – minor, dominant or major.  Furthermore, tunes composed with functional harmony (virtually all pre-1955 standards, show-tunes, ballads…) are based on this simple Rule.  All minor chords are ii’s, all V7 chords are dominants and all major chords are I’s.  Take for example D-7 G7 Cmaj7.  Majors are I’s, or Tonic.  Note that D is the second note in a C major scale and G is the fifth note.  Building these chords is simply stacking thirds on top of either D, G or C.  The trick is to remember that C is Tonic or Home and is the ruling key signature.  So, when we stack thirds on top of D, the first third is an F natural (not F sharp) because F natural is in the key of the Home key, C major.  If you play D-7 G7 Cmaj7 on the piano it sounds very nice and homogenous.  That is a typical ii-V-I, i.e. the Rule.  What makes composers and improvisors unique is not only how they master this rule but know how to break and manipulate the Rule.  This takes us to the concept of chord substitutions and that is for another post.

The Rule

D-7 G7 Cmaj7 (ii-V7-I) sounds good because all three of those chords share the same key and thus, a lot of the same notes.  It is very important for improvisors to recognize ii-V-I’s or ii-V’s in the lead sheets they are playing.  Once you learn how to see them, you see them all over the place in fake books.  When I’m teaching this concept, it’s always an “ah ha” moment when I can have the student open the fake book to virtually any page and find some ii-V’s.  Because they are everywhere in tonal jazz music it is also very important for us improvisors to not only recognize them but have some nice melodic information to be able to play over these ii-V’s.  This is where I suggest jazz students start a jazz journal and write down licks or melodic fragments that fit nicely over The Rule.  Then, LEARN THESE LICKS IN ALL KEYS.  It’s important to understand that ii-V7-I’s come in many sizes; meaning four measure phrases, two- and one-measure phrases.  So, I suggest you look through some of your favorite jazz transcriptions and find some ii-V7-I’s in these different sizes and write down the melodic material that you like – IN ALL KEYS.

Tune-Up

So now on to the tune, Tune-Up.  The website “Learn Jazz Standards” is a very nice resource and has some helpful information about Tune-Up.  You should check out the chord progression for the tune in your key.  (This site also has a link to a play-a-long for Tune-Up on the same page.)  Notice that with the exception of measures 13-16, the entire tune consists of four-measure ii-V7-I’s.  My suggestion is you find a lick or two that fits over a four-measure ii-V7-I and learn it in the three keys that are in Tune-Up.  Then use the play-a-long as a musical metronome and plug that lick(s) into those measures in the tune.

Another approach is Scalar, instead of Lick-oriented.  Tune-Up is built in four measure phrases and each four measures is in a different key.  Remember that ii-V7-I’s are different chords that share the same key signature so, you could play notes from the key D major for the first four measures (concert pitch) and then anything from C major for the next four measures and so on.  The forth set of four-measures is that problematic area I mentioned earlier and is the one case where the composer “broke the Rule”.  (ii-V material can still be implemented in that area but it falls in the category of substitutions and we’re saving that for a later post.)

Good Luck!

From an improvisation standpoint the tune has many opportunities to work our ii V I progression concepts.  It is a 32 bar song form, meaning that the tune is divided in half – 16 measures each with many similarities in both halves.  This is all well and good and important stuff.  However, what I would like to focus on this particular week with this particular tune is melodic interpretation.

When you look at this tune in a real book or in a lead sheet format, it is written with lots of quarter notes, half notes and whole notes.  Very straight forward.  Lead sheets need to format certain standards in this way to simplify and basically give you a skeleton representation of the composition.  It is the players responsibility to interpret and use inflections to bring the tune to life.  NO ONE should play this tune as written.  Individual interpretation of the head makes for logistical issues in our jam session setting obviously when there are more that one player wanting to play the tune.  If you were in a band with two melody players, convention would usually be that one player would play the first half of the tune by themselves and the other player would come in on the second half.  (Sometimes the player not playing the melody might play light backgrounds or harmony while they are not on their own melodic verse.)  In our jam session setting we will see how many folks are involved and divide the tune up as best as possible.  I would also encourage the player during their solo time that they take this time to explore the melody during their solo as much as they are thinking about the harmonic progressions.

Lastly and Firstly, I would recommend all players learn the words to “Another You” and have them going in their head while they play.  Listen to the rhythm of your speech and let that influence the rhythmic palette of your melodic interpretation or improvisation.  There is a famous story about a great young musician playing a ballad with Art Blakey and after playing a technically dazzling rendition, Blakey said something like, “That was nice kid but you obviously don’t know the words.”  or, “Next time, learn the words before you play the tune.”

There will be many other nights like this,
And I’ll be standing here with someone new.
There will be other songs to sing,
Another fall…another spring…
But there will never be another you.

There will be other lips that I may kiss,
But they won’t thrill me,
Like yours used to do.
Yes, I may dream a million dreams,
But how can they come true,
If there will never, ever be another you?

~interlude~ solos~

There will be many other nights like this,
And I’ll be standing here with someone new.
There will be other songs to sing,
Another fall…another spring…
But there will never be another you.

Yes, I may dream a million dreams,
But how can they come true,
If there will never, ever be…
Another you?

Next jam, on October 21, we focus on “A Night in Tunisia”.  This tune presents a couple of interesting things to deal with.

• First, no matter how many times I’ve played this tune, it is always a challenge to keep the form during the solos.  The solo form is AABA but the beginning of the bridge can sound like an A section and the soloist can trick the rhythm section to jumping to the bridge too early or vise versa.  To help keep form for the soloists, those of us not soloing can play a background figure.  We will play the first two notes of the 1^st measure of the bridge and the first two notes of the 5^th measure of the bridge every time the bridge comes around.  Soloists should make the 4^th and 8^th measures of the bridge tonal targets as those are two moments that are different from the rest of the piece.
• Another interesting improvisational novelty in this tune is it incorporates a solo break.  This is four measures of silence after the interlude where the soloists plays something that leads into their solo.  It’s like a cadenza except the player needs to keep strict time!  The soloist is also fully responsible for establishing whatever harmony they wish to employ.  Whatever you choose to play, it should sound like the first measure of the tune is a definite arrival point.  I’d like to suggest we break from tradition here and play the interlude after every soloist so that every person gets a chance at the break.
• The A sections of “Tunisia” consist of repetitive alternating chords.  This poses a couple opportunities for the soloist.  One tactic is to outline the chord in each measure like you would in most other situations.  The chord repetition gives you the chance to explore sequential ideas and rhythmic motives.  Another tactic is to combine the repeating chords and come up with a scale that most closely fits over both chords.  In this case we would combine (concert) d minor and Eb.  The resulting scale would be D Phrygian, Eb Lydian or Bb major.  However you want to think of it, you want to play in two flats but have the pitch “D” as your tonic.  This idea of combining chords to create a unifying scale works well in tunes that have repetitive chord structures.  Other tunes that come to mind would be “Well You Needn’t” and “Killer Joe”.
  • I first heard of this concept through learning that this is how Wayne Shorter composed and improvised over many of his fantastic tunes of the 60’s, like Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum.  This is a much more complex tune than “Tunisia” but if you break that entire tune down to a single mode it opens a lot of doors.  The mode to use are the notes he used for entire melody of “Fee-…”
  • Lastly, “Tunisia” traditionally ends with a cadenza in the last measure or two.  That might prove to be tricky in a jam session setting, especially if we have the wonderful turnout like we did last week!  I suggest that a quick and easy solution would be to play the head after all the soloists then go to the interlude section one last time and end cleanly where the break occurs.

Once again, I am really looking forward to playing with you all again at the next Madison Jazz Jam at the Fountain.  (This time I won’t have to duck out early for a Madison Symphony rehearsal!)

See you then,

Dave

This year’s conference was held in Columbus, GA at Georgia State University.  The facilities were gorgeous as the school has recently had a fantastic center for the arts built.  The Schwob school of music is connected to a new building that has a 1800 person hall, 500 person recital hall and a black box theater.  The buildings also have great practice and rehearsal room facilities.  There is a charming convention center a block away from the school and that is where the vendors were located.  This made for an interesting conference as a vendor.  I would have to say as a vendor this was not the best configuration.  There were so many musical events that were stacked on top of each other in 15 minute increments that one could easily stay over in the music building, not see everything you would want, and still never make it over to the booths.  A number of the fellow vendors had a similar experience.  I’m not sure of the actual attendance but on day 1 they had about 1000 registrants which seems a little light but not as light as our vendor sales warranted.

Lecture Performance

It sounds like I’m complaining and I don’t mean to.  I had a very nice time this year.  Especially since this was my first solo recital at one of the conferences.  I have played a few new music recitals in the past which were fun but this was a real treat.  I got to play in the big hall and presented the concertos of Lauren Bernofsky and Jim Stephenson.  They were there to talk about their compositional process, their works, have me demo some spots and field questions at the end.  I then played through each of their concertos in their entirety.  A review and a couple photos of the recital can be found here (under Wednesday).

A very special treat for me was that my UWP Trumpet Ensemble was selected to play the opening music for my performance.  This was a first ITG for many of them and I think it opened some of their eyes like it still does for me.  They played a piece by Lauren, Jim and UWP theory prof, Mike Forbes.  The group worked really hard on that set and went out there and nailed it for my presentation then played it again (even better) at another site called “Tower Music”.  I was so happy for them and proud of how they did.

Final Thoughts

Some musical highlights of the week for me were hearing Peter Bond of the Metropolitan Opera play the first movement of the Bohme Concerto with a trumpet ensemble.  (U of GA, I think)  He was an alumni of that school and was featured in this arrangement.  His playing was extremely expressive yet controlled and confident; a fantastic performance.  I also enjoyed the ballet of Robert Bradshaw.  It was great music with equally great trumpet playing by James Ackley.  Jim has been one of my favorite players for the last decade or so.  However, by far my favorite moment of the week was listening to Marvin Stamm’s Inventions Trio.  To me this was as close to perfect music as I have ever heard.  It was a fantastic blend of chamber music nuance and jazz improvisation with technical virtuosity to top it off.  I could have listened to the trio of trumpet, piano, and cello for hours.  I had a chance to talk with Marvin a few times later in the week and found him to be a wonderful guy, very gracious and kind.  I hope to cross paths with him more often.

All in all, a very nice time.

Doc was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1931 and is still living in Madison today, although, sadly he is no longer playing trumpet.  As a musician in the Madison area, I have rarely – if ever – run into another musician who has not heard of him or worked with him.  Doc is truly a Wisconsin Legend.  Hi heyday was during the 60s and 70s when he led a band that had a steady gig at a downtown club called the Pirate Ship.  He held that gig for over 14 years – four nights a week!  There were a number of recordings made from that band both live at the Pirate Ship and in the studio.

I met Doc when I moved to Madison in 1990.  He got me work in two local big bands (Madison Jazz Orchestra and Dick Jergens Orchestra) and we worked together or subbed for each other for many years.  It was always a very nerve-wracking situation to get a call to sub for Doc.  His style of music was a lyrical style of Dixie sometimes called Chicago Swing and my Freddie/Tom Harrell vocabulary simply did not work in those situations.  The other thing that made those situations difficult was that Doc had a huge following.  When I would show up in Doc’s stead, there were always questions and comments like, “so, where’s Doc?”, “Who’s this young guy playing all those notes?”  and my favorite, “You’re good, but no Doc DeHaven.”

Doc and I got to spend some time together on buses and hotels and we traded a lot of jazz information.  He was one of those guys that played like he was whistling; didn’t matter what key a tune was in and could play just about anything he knew in any key.  If he didn’t know a tune he would after hearing it a couple times.  He talked to me about developing my ear, memorizing tunes and thinking melodically when I improvise.  I would talk to him about chord substitutions or pentatonics.  He was in his sixties when I met him but he was constantly open to new ideas and a real “practice-a-holic”.  He was often the “elder statesman” of the bands we played in but he was never regarded as anything less than “The Man” when it came to soloing.

About two years after Doc and I met, I met his daughter, jazz singer Kelly DeHaven.  We’ve been married 18 years now.  My first recording session as a jazz musician was playing an arrangement of mine of “Joy Spring” on one of Doc’s CDs called Jazzscapes.  If you click on Jazzscapes you will go to a site where you can listen to tracks and (hopefully) buy a copy.

On June 2, 2012 the Madison Area Music Awards gave Doc a lifetime achievement award and honored him at a concert at the Overture Center.  He and his daughter Kelly accepted the award and a collage of some of his recordings was played.  I am including that collage here.

Doc Compilation

Listen to how deep his tone is; his rhythmic security; melodic craftsmanship and the pure beauty of his music.

My initial reflection on my time here has been that the people seem to be generally happy and less stressed than in the US.  The overall pace is slower and gentler.  There are definitely restrictions and censorship; like the city billboards are nothing like billboards in our large cities and hotel movie channels eliminated all swearing or any nudity.  Also, the three students that were assigned to us were not dating, nor ever had dated.  A couple of us were giving Jason a hard time at our last dinner and he was genuinely embarrassed about the prospect of a girlfriend.

Another observation was that after a week I was one of only about a dozen non-Chinese people I saw; except when I was at the Great Wall.  That, being a tourist destination, was very cosmopolitan.  It was surprising to me that a city as big as Beijing was so mono-cultural.

I’m writing this at the airport where I just learned I have a 3-hour delay due to fog.  This will make me miss my connecting flight home so I’ll be staying overnight in Chicago and getting home about 12 hours later than planned.  All in all, this was a fantastic experience and would go back to China at any opportunity.

After a very nice lunch in a country inn we went shopping for silk and tea.  The silk place was very near the Olympic Village and was very interesting in that they showed how the process is done and different grades of silk.  However, this was not the place to buy it.  Luckily our student let me know this was priced for tourists and let me know where the deals are.  I’ll hit those places tomorrow.  He did take us to a place to buy tea that is somehow connected to his family.  This was a small store down an alley in a part of town I would have never found, nor thought to go shopping.  We sat at a long table and sampled half a dozen teas all of the same variety, just different grades of quality.  After a while Marty and I became overwhelmed by the day and frankly I was thinking more about at beer at this point, rather than tea, so I told my host to take 200RPG (about $25) and give me a sampling of whatever he thinks best.  So I’ll find out when I get home what I got from my tea tasting.  Unfortunately, my phone ran out of juice at the Wall so I couldn’t get any shots of this very “real” part of town.  Marty did and perhaps I’ll get them from him and upload them at some point.