LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Help me understand Freebop

grsbmd -- 01/17/2007, 17:05:29 -- #32467

I have a lot of freebop albums and really enjoy them, but I still don't think I quite understand what's going on.  Let's take "Cookin' at the Plugged Nickel" as an example. This album is mostly standards.  I know that the songs stay in the same key, but It seems though that the only time I really hear the tune's harmonies are during the head.  So here's a set of questions I have: (These questions refer to the solo sections of a freebop tune) 1. Is the whole band playing the changes? 2. If not, is the bass player still walking over the changes? 3. Are the solos over modal harmonies or just free improvisation? 4. Any other freebop insight you can add?

Jazz+ -- 01/17/2007, 21:15:13 -- #32467

1. They tend to follow the form (changes) 2. Carter walks the changes but he puts the root on beat one less than most bass players. He is fond of pedal tones too. 3. They like to stretch their lines and venture into harmonic areas that are superimposed over the normal scale/chord associations. They go outside and back in frequently. 4. They used a lot of the melodic minor modes. Herbie liked superimposing a sequence of different melodic minor voicings over changes to shift the harmonies outside. Miles and Wayne had to do it with single note scales, herbie could do it with voicings and scales. Listen to their tune "Orbits" where there are no chord changes to speak of.

hepcatmonk -- 01/17/2007, 21:47:23 -- #32467

On that album, they are keeping the forms of the tunes...if i were a bell for example is always 32 bars when they play it. however, the changes they play are often not those of the tune, although they are often referenced. herbie and ron took it everywhere. The key areas are always there, but herbie and ron were playing all manner of substitutions, and doing things like blanketing one whole key area with a dissonant sound. also, using metric modulations, and playing over the demarcations of a section, it makes it hard to follow or tell what's going on. Great music that could go anywhere at everytime. Great album, but really hard to understand. Jazz+, could you please give an example of melodic minor voicings that Herbie has done, like provide notes or give a time on a recording?

jaledin -- 01/18/2007, 15:55:16 -- #32467

I'd be interested as well as to how Jazz+ could answer the question hepcatmonk asked.   Nice, complete, accurate answer by Jazz+ above -- I could only add another source, the classic album "Hub-Tones," which title tune gives a classic idea of how to run a Bb blues with all manner of substitution and superimposition.  It was a transcription which I could highly recommend because it touches on a number of the features Jazz+ mentions above (non-root-based basslines; superimposition; [tentative-but-faithful] preservation of the original changes) as well as some new ones (e.g., motivic development in both Herbie's and Freddie's improvs, etc.).

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