Seven Steps to Heaven

This post delves into one of Herbie's first recordings with the legendary bandleader and trumpet player Miles Davis.

A multitude of sources detail the lineage of the Davis band. Basically, Donald Byrd recommended Herbie Hancock and he joined in the spring of 1963. The first Miles Davis record with Herbie on it is Seven Steps to Heaven. Herbie plays on half of it, Victor Feldman plays on the remainder. Victor Feldman wrote the title track but the take included on the album features Herbie instead. Refer to the liner notes of the album or this web site for more details on the recording dates.

http://www.jazzdisco.org/miles-davis/catalog/

The rest of the band for this take of "Seven Steps to Heaven" includes George Coleman on tenor sax, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Here is a link to the recording on youtube. Herbie's solo begins around 4:30.

The tune follows a typical 32 measure AABA form. The A sections begin similar to the Charlie Parker tune "Confirmation". Both tunes are in F Major and use the same chords for the first three measures.

Fma | E-7b5 A7 | D-

The B section of "Seven Steps" starts on the dominant (C Major) and cycles upward to tonal centers that lie a minor 3rd apart from each other.

Cma | D-7 G7 | Cma | F-7 Bb7 | Ebma | Ab-7 Db7 | Gbma | (C7) ||

In addition to the eight measure groupings of harmonic material, the melody follows four and two measure phrases as well. The A sections contain four measures of melody, two measures of a drum question, and then two measures of a horn answer. The B section starts with four measures of scalar melody and two two-measure phrases fill out the remainder. Herbie's solo works with and against this structure with his eighth note based lines.

Herbie solos last after trumpet and sax solos. He takes a short solo; Herbie starts, plays the chord changes, and finishes. Despite the short overall length, Herbie exhibits a wide variety of phrasing for his right hand lines. Herbie crafts his melodic material to both coincide with the strict four measure phrasing of the tune and contradict it.

The first phrase - after the solo break - targets the downbeat of the third measure. On the D-maj7 chord Herbie lands on the seventh (C#). It is the first emphasized non-diatonic note of Herbie's solo. The E and D that follow resolve the tension and finish the first phrase. After some punctuation from Herbie's left hand he begins another phrase. This second phrase targets the downbeat of measure seven. On the Eb7 chord Herbie lands on the ninth (F). The remainder of this second phrase spills all the way into measure nine.

m1-8 of Herbie's first chorus

Shaping the first two phrases around these climaxes orients the listener. It establishes a connection between Herbie's solo and the lengths of the original melody (four and two measure phrases). Examining the pitches and their directions, this pattern also shows the balance. Compared to the remainder of Herbie's solo these first two phrases change direction infrequently. The notes ascend or descend with few diversions from those two strict options. This combination of pitch content, phrase length, and shape provides a context for the remainder of the solo; and Herbie explores variation with all three of those traits.

The third phrase does not follow this established pattern. Instead, Herbie avoids the downbeat of the eleventh measure. He begins this third phrase on beat two of the eleventh measure. This third phrase flows all the way into the sixteenth measure again avoiding any accent on the downbeat of the fifteenth measure. Adding more variety, this third phrase also changes direction many times (especially in measure fourteen). Herbie weaves this phrase through the chords with notes that follow less strict directions.

m9-16 of Herbie's first chorus

Later at the beginning of the second chorus, Herbie shows another concise example of the depth of his phrasing. At measure 33, Herbie plays a six note pattern. Comprised of a quarter note, four eighths, and another quarter note, this idea accents the downbeat of each measure. In the next two measures, he transposes the six note phrase up a half step in each measure. This strict use of a pattern implies the tritone substitution of Eb7 in place of E-7b5 and A7. Also, the first and last note of this pattern (D, Eb, E, and ending on F) create contrary motion against Feldman's original descending harmony.

m33-40 of Herbie's second chorus

The remainder of the this phrase from measure 36-40 flows in long mostly scalar parts that span two octaves of the instrument. Measure 40 arguably sounds comical; after such intricate phrasing, melodic shapes, and quality substitutions the listener gets three beats of bebop cliche.

Here is Herbie's entire solo on the tune. 

*Originally published under a pseudonym on November 10th, 2014. 

Watch It

"Watch It" might be one of the best Herbie tune's that you have never heard. It funnels the excitement of the best funky Herbie into an acoustic trio setting. It opens the Herbie Hancock Trio 1977 record with familiar sidemen Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Four years later, these three made the Trio '81 album. Both Trio '77 and Trio '81 were only released in Japan.

As a tune, "Watch It" remains more of a sketch rather than a delicately planned out composition. It remains similar to the tune "One Finger Snap" from the Empyrean Isles record. On "One Finger Snap," Herbie likely only wrote out the first four measures. Listening through to the interlude, outhead, and alternate take of that tune reveals only those four measures of melody as consistent. In the same way, going through "Watch It" reveals only the first eight measures played consistently.

In this blogger's opinion, the individual musicianship and trio communication throughout the recording more than make up for any apparent compositional shortcoming this tune possesses.

There are three main sections of the tune. There's the intro/interlude (marked [A] in the listening guide and chart included below). This section includes a unison bass and piano line with chords/hits that answer. Herbie moves the unison line down a minor third and then more chords/hits answer. The chords/hits in the third and fourth measure of this first section later form a funk vamp for use in solos.

The second section (marked [B]) swings. In solos this section is generally played twice. Throughout the song, the dominant chords here are varied and sometimes played as ii V7s. (For example, Eb-7 Ab7 in place of Ab7.)

The third section (marked [C]) starts to break up the swing rhythmic feel. Ron Carter plays a B pedal point and the harmony changes. Herbie's harmony and melody shift on top as the tune builds into the funk vamp section.

As mentioned earlier, this funk vamp originates from the first section. They play the two measure vamp a total of four times before the piano solo begins.

Here is a link to a recording of the entire album on youtube. "Watch It" is the first track and the timestamps from the following listening guide match

*********************************

0:00 - 1:07 Inhead
[A], [B]1x, [C], [D]

1:07 - 4:19 piano solo
1:07 - 1:57 over [D] vamp
1:57 - 2:36 over [B] 2x
2:36 - 2:53 over [C]
2:53 - 4:19 over [D] vamp

4:19 - return to [A] as interlude

4:39 - 6:50 bass solo
4:39 - 5:17 over [B] 2x
5:17 - 5:35 over [C]
5:35 - 6:50 over [D] vamp

6:50 - return to [A] as interlude

7:10 - 8:07 second piano solo
7:10 - 7:48 over [B] 1x
7:48 - 8:07 over [C] 2x

8:07 - 9:21 drum solo over [D] vamp

9:21 - return to [A] for Outhead
[A], [B]1x, [C], [D]

10:20 - end [D] vamp with piano solos/fills

********************************************

Finally, here is a copy of my chart for this tune. The melody depicted comes from the inhead of the recording.

Clocking it at 12:25, this song simply includes too much Herbie to analyze all of it. However, some especially tasty moments include:

-around 1:20 where Herbie plays a great pianistic shape. The octaves in his right hand are the first eighth note triplet. This leaves his left hand to play the remaining two eighth note triplets.
-the funk riffs at 3:02.
-following this the quality substitution where his left hand plays minor major 7 chords over the [D] vamp
-the blisteringly fast right hand line at 3:52
-6:32 where Ron Carter is still soloing over the [D] vamp. Herbie plays the first chord of the tune. Maybe he was trying to signal the interlude? No big deal.
-10:57 and 11:00 where after a bunch of trills in the right hand Herbie tosses off these two crazy lines.

In closing, if you are trying to get your hands on a physical copy of Trio '77 check out Wounded Bird Records.

http://www.woundedbird.com/

I have no direct connection to them but they are in the business of re-releasing some of these obscure/import/out-of-print Herbie albums. If not them, then you probably have to find the album used somewhere. Keep it up Wounded Bird!

*Originally published under a pseudonym on January 27th, 2015.

Fee-Fi-minor/major9-Fum

As you may have guessed from the title, this post delves into the classic Wayne Shorter tune, "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" from the 1964 record, Speak No Evil. This album documents one of only two instances where drummer Elvin Jones and Herbie Hancock record together (the other one is Bob Brookmeyer and Friends, recorded a few months prior). Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and bassist Ron Carter round out the personnel for Speak No Evil.

On a side note, Speak No Evil was recorded on Christmas Eve in 1964. Anyone else glad that Blue Note did not make the group play any holiday tunes for the session? Although, that probably would have been killin.

Here is a link to "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" on youtube.

"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" is the second track on the record. The 24-measure ABA tune consists of three eight measure phrases. Wayne threw together some unique harmonic ideas in the A sections and hints at the blues in the B section. The tune is in Bb major. Pianist and educator Steven Strunk, wrote a detailed paper that elaborates on this. I would like to add though that the eight measure introduction contains four measures of an F pedal point. This dominant pedal point further helps establish the key.

Herbie, Ron, and Elvin play the eight measure introduction. It's likely that Herbie had some of the voicings worked out or potentially even the whole thing. This introduction is much more involved compared to the type of introduction that most working pianists will typically utilize. Although, there is certainly a time and place to play the last eight measures of the tune, establish the groove/tonality, hint at a chord change for the bassist, and hopefully teach someone the correct way to end the melody.

Here's the transcription of the introduction.

Starting on the last beat of the first measure and extending through measure five those chords are all minor major 9 chords (root, minor 3rd, perfect 5th, major 7th, and 9th). However, they are all played over an F pedal. One potential error is that the major 7th (second note from the top in Herbie's voicings) may be played under the root sometimes (thus the first chord would instead be spelled from the bottom to the top C, Db, Fb, Ab, Eb). It's quite tricky to hear exactly where the major 7th lies in the voicing. Either way, it's still an awesome intro that uses constant structure minor major 9 chords.

Aside from the notes on the page, the rhythm and dynamics make this intro pop. Note the huge accent on the Ab7 chord on beat two of measure seven. It's the only non-syncopated chord in the whole introduction and the players all smash into it. They play the next chord much quieter and set up the melody for the tune.

It seems that Herbie may have started with the top notes in this introduction. The top notes create a melody that follows the Bb blues scale. Herbie may have simply just made most of the notes of that melody the 9th in his minor-major 9 chords. Or maybe that's not it at all.

Next, let's get into Herbie's solo on this tune.

Herbie solos last on this track, following a solo from Freddie and then Wayne. His solo begins around the 3:53 mark of the song. Here's the transcription of his chorus.

In general, Herbie plays a lot triplets and blues language throughout this solo. The harmony in "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" possesses a lot of subtle half-step connections that many talented musicians will usually emphasize while playing. The most striking aspects of this chorus are not how Herbie 'plays the changes' but rather the groove and articulations. Check out m25-26 starting the last A section of his solo. Herbie plays that phrase with a particular crispness and you can hear Elvin respond beautifully with sharper snap of his hi-hat cymbals for a few beats. Then over the last two measures of Herbie's solo he plays a sweet idea that has four note groupings of eighth note triplets.

*Originally published under a pseudonym on January 18th, 2014. 

Dolphin's First Dance

"John Hancock? It's Herbie Hancock!"

http://youtu.be/NpEoX8VtHIU?t=30s

Chris Farley aside, this post deals with one of Herbie's most well-known tunes.

The Herbie Hancock tune "Dolphin Dance" first appeared on his 1965 album Maiden Voyage.

Maiden Voyage includes trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. The album was recorded 17 May 1965.

Herbie revealed in the first Norton lecture that the Frank Foster tune "Shiny Stockings" inspired "Dolphin Dance." He mentions this huge detail almost in passing while recounting how he assembled a big band at Grinnell College.

(skip to 54:42 for "Shiny Stockings" reference)

Without that lecture, this writer would probably never connected the two tunes. Herbie borrowed one unique harmonic device from Frank Foster though - ii V's ascending in whole steps. Measures nine through sixteen of "Shiny Stockings":

(in Ab Major)

Bb-7 | Eb7 (Db-7) | C-7 | F7 | D-7 | G7 | Cmaj6 | C-7b5 F7 ||

Excluding the Db-7 in measure ten, Frank Foster wrote ii V's ascending in a whole step pattern with one chord per measure. They bring the tune to Cmaj6, a major 3rd away from the original tonic.

Herbie also uses the whole step ascending ii V's towards the end of "Dolphin Dance." Here are measures twenty five through thirty two:

(in Eb Major)

Eb7 | A-7 D7 | B-7 | E7 (D-7) | C#-7 | F#7 | B-9/E | A-9/E ||

The pattern begins in measure twenty six with A-7 D7. Herbie uses a passing D-7 chord in measure twenty eight similarly to how Frank Foster used a passing Db-7 in "Shiny Stockings."

Luckily, since this is my blog instead of a grad school paper, you can tediously flesh out how Frank Foster and Herbie arrive and depart from the whole step ascending ii V pattern.

Here is a link to the recording of "Dolphin Dance" from Maiden Voyage.

Aside from the ascending whole step ii V's, Herbie included multiple pedal points, non-diatonic ii V's, and other upper-extension filled chords. The tune travels to key centers that lie a third away from the home tonic of Eb major (C minor in the fifth measure and G major in measure seventeen).

The solo form adds another layer of potential confusion to this tune. Herbie constructed the last four measures of the tune as a variation of the first four measures. They are both over the Eb pedal point, use similar melodies, and conclude with a ii V to C minor.

The chart included below attempts to provide as clear of a road map as possible for this tune. The chart is marked with three main sections. The [A], [A'], and [A''] sections all start with the Eb pedal point. [A] is only played once at the beginning of the tune. [A'] is played with the melody to lead into the first solo. Afterward, [A'] is only played as the chords for solos. [A''] is only played once towards the end of the tune to start the outhead.

Following the Maiden Voyage recording, each of the three soloists takes two choruses. Freddie Hubbard begins his solo when the chart repeats at the end of measure thirty eight to measure five. He concludes his solo at letter [C] and George Coleman begins his solo at letter [A']. Coleman follows the same pattern and concludes his solo at letter [C] so that Herbie can begin at letter [A']. At the end of Herbie's solo, the band plays [A"] to start the outhead and close the tune while vamping at letter [C].

Below is a chart for "Dolphin Dance."

On a side note, pianist Ahmad Jamal recorded "Dolphin Dance" on his 1970 piano trio record The Awakening. This recording includes an incorrect performance of the form. Jamal starts and concludes with a vamp over the E pedal. In between, they play through Herbie's form four times and each time they repeat from measure thirty eight to measure one instead of measure five.

Yes, quantitatively Jamal plays the from 'wrong'. However, who cares? Jamal's version still packs a lot of highly creative trio playing. He must have been onto something as countless hip hop artists chose to sample Jamal's version instead of Herbie's version. The Actual Proof blog points out this detail about Jamal's performance of the tune's form purely for thoroughness.

Now onto Herbie's piano solo over "Dolphin Dance." He starts with some swinging ideas that outline the chords and follows that with a motif (measures 19-24). The end of this post contains a full copy of the solo transcription. In general, he follows the tune's harmonic contour and outlines the harmony.

Herbie plays a particularly cool triplet idea to close his first chorus (measures 35-38). The previous measures include relatively straightforward eighth note triplet ideas over the E pedal point. These notes wind back and forth usually as a half step or whole step interval as they gradually ascend in pitch. Measures 35-37 all include triplet rhythmic ideas and specific harmonic shapes over an Eb pedal point. Starting in measure 35, Herbie then plays four note groupings of eighth note triplets. These groupings divide each measure of 4/4 time into three equal parts. This rhythmic idea continues through measure 38 and concludes at the top of Herbie's second solo chorus.

On top of that rhythmic idea, Herbie chooses notes that outline specific harmony for each measure. Starting in measure 35, Herbie arpeggiates a Bb-9 chord. He plays it descending and starts on the 9th scale degree. Measure 36 follows a less straightforward pattern. Herbie's note choices in measure 36 all come from the G dominant diminished scale (alternating half steps and whole steps: G, Ab, A#, B, C#, D, E, F, G). Starting on A# (Bb in the transcription), Herbie plays another descending shape following his rhythmic grouping from the previous measure. This descending shape follows the interval pattern of minor third, perfect fourth, and minor third.

Herbie's note choices in measure 37 continue to increase the tension. Here almost all of his notes originate from the symmetrical augmented scale (alternating half steps and minor thirds: G, G#, B, C, Eb, E, G). The Db played in the in the middle of beat three does not belong to this scale. Herbie starts on a Eb two octaves above where the previous measure ended and plays a descending shape. The first descending shape in measure 37 follows the same interval pattern in measure 36 (minor third, perfect fourth, and minor third). The two remaining rhythmic groupings do not follow the same interval pattern. Next, Herbie arpeggiates an Eb major triad in a descending shape to finish this first solo chorus (measure 38).

Despite scale names existing for those sounds Herbie plays distinctly chordal shapes. In other words, yes this blog can provide a jazz theory scale name like dominant diminished or symmetrical augmented but these names barely describe the true effect of Herbie's note choice. Herbie does not run those scales in an ascending or descending shape like a major, minor, or blues scale. His note choices all lie at least a third apart from each other. Herbis is thinking "chord tones, chord tones, chord tones."

Another highlight of this solo includes a rhythmic idea in the second chorus. Over the G pedal point in measures 47-49 Herbie plays sixteenth notes in a six note repeating pattern. The pattern ascends with the notes G, A#, B, D, and then finishes with B, C before restarting. This pattern originates from the dotted quarter note polyrhythm.

Hearing the D as the emphasized/accented note in each six note grouping shows attention to beat 2, the and of 3, beat 1, the and of 2, beat 4, etc. This means that the first three notes (G, A#, and B) are a type of antecedent.

This rhythmic concept - sixteenth notes in groupings of six and outlining the dotted quarter note polyrhythm - may seem straightforward and potentially even obvious compared to other possible groupings. However, the added 'turn' when the ascending shape descends and repeats a note (B), and then finishes with an additional neighbor note (C), make this idea special. Herbie may have arrived at the additional turn out of necessity; we only have five fingers on each hand. While the recording does not show any left hand chords during measures 47-49, it is unlikely that this passage was played between two hands. Herbie's left hand tends to complement and interact with his right hand rather than serve as a piano technique aid. Also, assigning one finger per note allows the right hand to execute this idea.

Here is a full copy of Herbie's solo on "Dolphin Dance." Herbie's solo begins around 5:44.

"Dolphin Dance" is one of Herbie's best-known tunes for a reason. This first recording and solo leave that much of an impression on people. Go correct your fake book, or not.

*Originally published under a pseudonym on March 3rd, 2015. 

T. O. B. M.

Welcome to the first post detailing how Herbie tackles a jazz standard. More specifically, this post shows Herbie playing over a tune that has lyrics.

"That Old Black Magic," or T.O.B.M. for short, is a jazz standard composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. These two men contributed many other tunes to the American songbook both as a team and with other composers/lyricists.

T.O.B.M. appears as the fourth of five tracks on an album called Trio '81. The album includes another jazz standard, "Stablemates," as well as three originals by each group member. The regular Ron Carter and Tony Williams unit accompany Herbie on bass and drums. Similar toTrio '77, this album was recorded in Japan and only released there. For those keeping score of the Hancock discography, Trio '81 comes after the well-known Headhunters, after the VSOP dates, and only about a year and a half before "Rockit."

Here is a link to the track on youtube.

T.O.B.M. is a comparatively longer tune (72 measures total). It follows an AABA' form; the last A section includes a built-in tag. One small note, Herbie's version of T.O.B.M. leaves out four measure of the tune. His melody and solo choruses are consistently over a 68 measure form. Herbie leaves out these four measures from the last A section. Herbie plays the second and last A sections almost exactly the same. Herbie retains the built-in tag for the last A section though.

This may have been a mistake. Or, in this writer's opinion, Herbie chose to alter the harmony and form while paraphrasing the melody. With fewer of the original tune's subtleties, Herbie allows for more freedom as an improviser. (See John Coltrane's "Out of this World" from Coltrane for another example of adjusting an Arlen/Mercer tune.)

When choosing a jazz standard to perform as a trio, pianists arguably lean on repertoire with more active melodies. Arguably, most pianist find standards where the melody either repeats a lot of the same note in a row or where the melody includes many longer/held out notes a challenge. Arlen wrote T.O.B.M. with many repeated notes, especially in the A sections. In Herbie's version, he leaves out many notes from the original melody, particularly in the A sections. His arrangement targets certain melodic landmarks while making his way through the form. A listener could not match up all of Herbie's melody notes and the syllables of the lyrics. Herbie decidedly paraphrases more than presents the melody of T.O.B.M.

Herbie achieves this paraphrasing mostly through a rhythmic motif. Over two measures, he plays a dotted quarter note starting on the third beat of the first measure followed by an eighth note. Herbie fills the second measure with silence and then two measure motif repeats. Herbie adjusts the top note of each of these chords to fit melodic landmarks of the tune. Ron Carter plays this rhythmic motif with Herbie. This motif lasts for the first eight measures of each A section. The remainder of the A sections and the entire B section consist of walking quarter notes from Ron and Herbie playing mostly single note variations of the melody.

Here is a chart of Herbie's arrangement of T.O.B.M.

Now onto Herbie's solo. He takes four choruses, allows the tune to breath while Ron and Tony play one chorus together, plays the out head, and last continues improvising over a vamp while the group tags the ending.

Herbie plays mostly eighth-note based lines. He frequently uses bebop language in his lines to imply a ii V that lies one half step higher than the next harmony. Herbie's first chorus contains two examples.

Measures 11-12 of Herbie's first solo chorus, approximately 1:12.

Here, Herbie is probably thinking F#-9 | B7 and then targets an F-9 in the following measure.

Measure 22 of Herbie's first solo chorus, approximately 1:22.

Similarly,  in the above example Herbie is probably thinking E-7 A7 as he targets an Abma7 in the following measure. These two phrases, as well as other instances of this technique, create tension throughout the solo.

Moving on through this solo, Herbie employs a quite pianistic idea to lead into the third solo chorus.

last 4 measures of 2nd chorus and first 8 measures of 3rd chorus (3:06-3:15)

In this example, the eighth-note triplet pattern continues until the end (no rests on the last eighth-note triplet). The notation software would not fit all of the notes into the systems.

With these nine and a half measures, Herbie plays one of the most pianistic ideas in this entire solo. While another musician could work out most of his phrases on their instrument this phrase remains unique to the piano. Without a doubt, Herbie executes this idea with both of his hands. His right hand plays the first and second eighth-note triplets and his left hand plays the last. Playing this texture at tempo involves extra attention to releasing the right hand thumb in time to allow the left hand to play that note again.

This shape possesses a lot of similarities with a shape in Beethoven's second piano sonata (Opus 2, A Major). In the first movement, Beethoven wrote these measures

Measures 83-90

According to pianist Andras Schiff, the above example includes one of the first instances of Beethoven writing in fingering. Schiff goes a step further though and calls this fingering impossible. Pianists play the above passage with their left hand taking the first note in each group while the right hand plays the second and third.

Here is a link to the Beethoven lecture where Schiff details this passage.

https://youtu.be/E7kbJzThbP0?t=5m40s

In the Beethoven, the left hand emphasizes the first note of each group. While the rhythmic emphasis remains similar, Herbie contrasts with piano technique; the fifth finger on his right hand emphasizes the first note each group. Beethoven's phrase plays the lower note, then a note one octave higher, and finally it repeats the lower note. Herbie's second note is one octave lower and then the left hand repeats the same lower note. Beethoven's phrase descends and ascends following an E major triad while Herbie plays a meandering scalar idea. These differences aside, they both draw on a similar pianistic texture and both almost certainly use two hands to execute it.

Herbie's meandering scalar phrase also creates an interesting pattern when examining the entire nine measures. Assuming that beat one of the top of the tune's form remains a target, this pattern repeats/develops every six beats. Herbie plays six beats of the running eighth-note triplet before the top of the form (m3-4 in the above example). Then, the first six beats of the third chorus are repeated exactly three times (m5-9). The following six beat pattern starts with the same first four beats but then Herbie changes the remaining notes (m10). Instead of playing G's and Bb's, he now plays F#'s and A's. These two notes surround the downbeat of the following measure. This remains the last instance of his six beat pattern. In measures 11 and 12, Herbie plays up and down the first five notes of the F minor scale to resolve the entire idea.

Later in that same chorus, Herbie plays "the lick." If you are not familiar with the lick, watch this video.

While Herbie's example is not an exact match, it's definitely close enough. And that Bb grace not that he plays before the dotted quarter note C? Yeah, it's the lick.

From last A section, 3rd chorus (3:55-3:58)

This writer feels compelled to call out Herbie's use of the lick. Herbie plays on such a high level all through this take and all of a sudden there's the lick...

As mentioned earlier, Herbie plays a total of four choruses. After the fourth solo chorus, Ron and Tony play through the form once. Neither plays a "solo" in the same way that Herbie did. Then the trio plays the outhead following the same arrangement as the beginning. Following that, the group tags the ending while Herbie improvises more. This ending technique comes from the Miles Davis bands. Many studio and live versions of tunes like "All of You" and "If I Were a Bell" include soloing over a tag at the end.

Most of Herbie's improvisation at this part of the tune contains similar language to his earlier solo. Immediately before Herbie cues the end of the vamp, he plays a particularly nice idea.

(7:50-8:00)

In the middle four measures from the above example, Herbie plays an Eb Major triad descending. Each time he plays the triad the notes are all on different beats. It remains a nice example of rhythmic displacement. The last four measures in the above example show Herbie referencing the melody of T.O.B.M. and cueing the ending chords to this recording.

Last, here is the transcription of Herbie's solo.

*Originally published under a pseudonym on September 20, 2015.

Driftin'

Welcome to the blog post about one of Herbie’s most swinging tunes. “Drifitin'" is the sixth track on his 1962 album Takin’ Off. This was Herbie’s first record as a leader. The album also features Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet/flugelhorn, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

The album contains all original Herbie tunes. Compared to Herbie's later tunes, “Driftin’” is straightforward. The tune is in Eb Major, has a 32 measure AABA form, and contains functional harmony. As the musicians play over this medium swing tune they use a variety of bebop and blues language in their improvisations.

The group plays an arrangement of the tune that follows obvious patterns from jazz of this era. There are hits that punctuate the melody every four measures during the A sections. The horns play the melody for the first A section and Herbie plays the melody on the second A section. Then the horns return to play the melody for the B section and the final A section. They repeat this melody arrangement on the outhead and tag the last phrase three times to end.

Dexter takes the first solo and plays one chorus. Freddie takes the second solo and plays one chorus as well. Freddie's solo contains many sustained notes and few rhythms faster than eighth notes. Then Herbie takes the last solo. He begins with a short phrase that acknowledges Freddie's solo. However, by the fourth measure Herbie carefully tosses off sixteenth note runs. These fast runs comprise the majority of this chorus.

Herbie executes a particularly fast phrase in this first chorus. It occurs around 3:40 in the recording and over measure 14 of his solo (towards the end of the second A section and over a C7). My transcription shows the phrase as 32nd notes but listening to the phrase in context reveals that Herbie meant it as a gesture. The phrase strikes a listener like a blur rather than a phrase that adheres to a strict rhythm. Lucky for you, this writer spent a great deal of time on this one phrase and includes all of the notes from this blur in the transcription.

Here it is.

Herbie almost certainly used two hands to play it. The phrase starts below middle C on the piano in a range on the instrument where the left hand typically comps chords. (No left hand is audible at this point in the recording.) Further factors that suggest two hands include the speed, combination of white/black keys, and varying intervals. Going strictly off of what I transcribed, this is how I would play it at the piano.

Numbers on the top would be for the right hand and numbers on the bottom would be for the left hand.

Now, Herbie likes to play patterns, especially when he plays something complex. Allowing room for speculation, this writer sees an option for what Herbie meant to play. This guesswork relies on the assumption that Herbie plays patterns. It also depends on accepting that for piano technique, the intended phrase bears a striking similarity to the sounded phrase.

That said, over this C7 chord Herbie probably thought two diminished seventh chords (C# and G) with a chromatic lower neighbor tone. More specifically, the chromatic lower neighbor of C# diminished seven in this context is the root of the C7 chord. Also, the chromatic lower neighbor of G diminished seven is F# which is a tritone away from C7.

One important detail includes that G diminished seven and C# diminished seven remain the same chord, only with the four pitches ordered differently (G Bb C# E compared to C# Bb E G). This connection contributes to the phrase sounding like a blur.

The entire pattern would repeat once. Below are both the sounded phrase (top) and intended phrase for comparison. Note that the spots for left versus right hands are quite similar. Also, the D# and F# in the top phrase could easily be accidentally played and in a similar way the added C's in the left hand in the lower example could easily be ghosted (half-played).

Moving onto the second chorus, Herbie plays less fast runs. Instead, the second chorus contains a lot of locked hands playing and blues melodies. He frequently doubles the melody an octave lower with his right hand thumb. For nineteen measures in this second chorus Herbie simply plays the blues. Nevermind ii V's, nevermind diminished scales, and nevermind the changes. It's all Eb blues scale. During these blues and locked hands passages Herbie plays heavier and gets a louder sound at the instrument. Combining the increased dynamic with the locked hands technique it achieves an effect similar to all of the instruments in a big band playing a shout chorus.

During the bridge of Herbie's second chorus, Billy Higgins plays the cross-stick on the snare drum. He does it on beat 2 of measures 50-55. The first cross-stick "whack" comes during six beats of silence in Herbie's solo. Considering the sixteenth-note lines and locked hands that preceded, this blogger welcomes six beats of silence. Thankfully, Billy is there is to provide a hearty "whack" for Herbie."

The moment happens around 4:53 in the youtube link. And yes, throughout the life of this blog I will eventually compile a list of the the "Top 5 times a drummer gave Herbie the cross-stick" and yes, this instance will be on that list.

Herbie concludes his solo with more blues and more sixteenth-note lines. The full transcription of Herbie's two chorus solo follows. After Herbie's solo transcription, this blog contains transcriptions of Dexter and Freddie's solos as well. It seemed worthwhile to include them even though this is a blog about Herbie.

Two quick notes about the horn solos. First, with all of the sustained notes, Freddie does not spell out the chord changes like Herbie and Dexter. Second, Dexter never plays the Bb-7 chord in the second half of measures 3, 11 and 27. This writer has seen charts that indicate that measure as C-7 or as C-7 then C-7/Bb. Herbie's right hand lines do not explicitly play Bb-7 there (except for m27 in the transcription). The Bb-7 in the above chart comes from Herbie's left hand.

*Originally published under a pseudonym on April 4, 2016.