Listening 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!