Category Archives: Classes

Agenda for 12/18/15: Cootie, Gil and Russell..

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BLUES FOR PABLO M 13-17 COLORListening to the classic “Concerto for Cootie” I’m hearing so many cool devices and trademark Duke sounds. I think we’re going to delve into that a little – maybe look at a few things from “Dimenuendo and Crescendo in Blue”, maybe not…I have a feeling “Cootie” might stimulate some discussion.

Then I want to continue with “Blues for Pablo” by Gil Evans. Not only because I think it’s a monumental piece, but cause I have a detailed analysis of a few passages and I want to look at how Gil moves his arrangements forward by changing orchestration. Gil shows us three dimensions in writing:

1) vertical (voicing, harmony), 2) horizontal (melody, the flow of time, the timeline of the music), and 3) the Z axis that we feel from the push and pull of everything grinding and coalescing, moving and shaking. Think of an energy flow that starts behind the band and pushes out into the audience. It’s not just volume and intensity, but a constant ebb and flow of tension and release within the timeline. In improvised music the third dimension (as I sometimes hear it) comes from the forces generated from the musicians improvising, and the various artistic sparks that spontaneously occur.

These pockets of energy flow are harder to achieve in a written ensemble setting, but cats like Gil Evans and George Russell knew how to do it. Russell was able to expand his sound to include more improv, in a controlled way, in a way that made something “out” sound like it could have been written…anyway we’ll touch on him a bit if there’s time. There is some serious George Russell and Sun Ra listening to be done (without scores), we’ll start in on something in that realm. See you there!

October Surprise: “St. Louis Blues” at 10/23 Class

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I was looking around for scores on the interwebs and happened upon artistshare.com, which among other great artists, features the recent Gil Evans project of composer and arranger Ryan Truesdale. At the August class we listened to Gil’s “St. Louis Blues” from Old Wine, New Bottles, and low and behold, Ryan has published, with the consent of the Evans family, an accurate score of this very arrangement. So we spent most of the time taking apart this great work.

We also touched on Gil’s “Blues for Pablo” from Miles Ahead. We’re going to get back to this piece next class, and again and again, cause it’s a monumental work. A real ‘teachable’ piece…it’s like a Gil handbook, or a primer, or perhaps the Rosetta Stone of his work. Pure genius.

I can’t publish on this site Ryan’s Gil Evans scores without permission (which I don’t have yet), but here you will find PDF’s of the handouts from “Blues for Pablo”. Get the CD, read up on the history of this record (Miles Ahead), and dig upon some of the voicings and textures within.

See you next class!

 

update: the next class is Friday, December 18th at 10 AM, again at VItello’s in Studio City.

August 6th, 2015 ESG at Vitello’s: Duke, Gil and More.

A great turnout to the reboot of the ESG! On August 6th we had about 45 composers, arrangers and other interested parties really getting into “Dim and Cresc in Blue” by Ellington. We also checked out Gil Evans’ “St. Louis Blues” from his recording Old Wine, New Bottles (which I had recently gotten in a CD box set), which features Cannonball Adderley as the alto featured. It’s got some great examples of reharmonization, altered harmonic rhythm, and some cool comp techniques, all within an old blues tune. No score for that one, just lots of ears.