Now that we’ve seen some very different kinds of blues in jazz idioms – more or less traditional and more modern – let’s look at blues in Swing Era big band music.
Now that I’ve laid out the basic 12-bar form in the two previous posts I’m not going to spend so much time on that.
As you probably know, a standard jazz big band consists of a rhythm section plus saxophone, trumpet, and trombone sections. The rhythm section almost always has bass, drums, and piano. It may also include a guitarist and, in some bands, a Latin percussionist or two. Some bands carried a vocalist or two as well. The saxophones frequently doubled on other instruments, such as flute and clarinet. Ellington always had a clarinetist who only played clarinet.
Though we tend to think of jazz as being organized around improvising soloists, that’s not how big band jazz worked. It was as much a vehicle for composers and arrangers as for soloists. Soloists are assigned to play specific choruses in an arrangement in a way that allows the arrangement to have a coherent and compelling shape, often/usually culminating in a “shout” chorus near the end.
Count Basie: One O’Clock Jump, Blues in Hoss Flat
Let’s look at Count Basie’s first recording of “One O’Clock Jump” from 1937. It was to become his theme song. The Wikipedia article lays out the basics:
The melody derived from band members’ riffs—Basie rarely wrote down musical ideas, so Eddie Durham and Buster Smith helped him crystallize his ideas. The original 1937 recording of the tune by Basie and his band is noted for the saxophone work of Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trumpet by Buck Clayton, Walter Page on bass, and Basie himself on piano. The song is typical of Basie’s early riff style. The instrumentation is based on “head arrangements” where each section makes up their part based on what the other sections are playing. Individuals take turns improvising over the top of the entire sound.
The stuff about riffs and head arrangements is important. They just made this stuff up and, over time, figured out what to do with all those instruments in one organization. In the process some musicians came to specialize in writing arrangements for bands.
The tune starts out with the rhythm section, bass, drums, and piano (Basie), on a short vamp. The tune, that is, the blues form, starts at roughly 0:11. Notice that the guitar also enters, playing on every beat. That’s Freddie Green, who played with Basie for years. The second chorus starts at 0:28 – for those keeping track. The change should be obvious even if you aren’t counting bars. That’s followed by a tenor sax solo, which sounds like Lester Young, with backing riff by the trumpets. Then we have a trombone solo, with saxophone backing riffs. Another sax solo, now trumpet – notice how the backing riffs change from chorus to chorus. By this point we have a moderately thick texture. It thins out at 1:53 for piano, bass, and drums for a chorus. Now we bring the band back on riffs. Finally, the saxes have the standard melody at 2:27. That’s followed by another riff chorus and we’re done. This arrangement doesn’t have a proper shout chorus.
Think about that. We are over two-thirds of the way through the tune before we get the melody. Maybe the melody isn’t the point. It's mostly a way of attaching an identity to the tune. What’s important is the play between the various voices, soloists, and sections of the band.
“Blues in Hoss Flat” is from a 1959 album, Chairman of the Board. It’s by Basie, and tenor saxophonist and arranger, Frank Foster (we heard him in the previous post).
This one starts with the full band, no sneaking up on things with just the rhythm section. We’ve left the riff style behind. This was arranged from top to bottom, start to finish, by Frank Foster.
The tune starts at 0:07. Do you need me to tell you what’s going on? No, I didn’t think so. You can hear the call-and-response easily enough – typical of the blues. Now a trumpet solo, enter a sax soli with trumpet responding, then a trombone solo in dialog with trumpet figures. Time to calm things down (1:29) and then start building. Now the trumpets take it, 2:11; we’re at the shout chorus (hear Basie comping in the background) – ‘cause that’s how Frank likes to do things. Whew! Let’s calm things down as we take it to the end. Joe Newman ends it with some plunger work on the trumpet.
By 1959 bebop had been in the ascendent for over a decade and a half, and we’re heading toward modal jazz – Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue came out in ’59 as well. But Basie is playing pretty much the same style he had in the 1930s, though the arrangements had become more complex. That’s what he knew and liked, his fans too. Good enough.
Duke Ellington: C Jam Blues, The Mooche, Blues for New Orleans
What could be simpler than the melody for Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues?” We have just two pitches. This was recorded in 1942:
We start with just the rhythm section. Wellman Alvin "Junior" Raglin is playing bass, Sonny Greer on drums, and Ellington on piano. He starts right on the melody. In the second chorus (0:13) Ellington passes that two-note melody to the sax and plays backing figures. We get Ray Nance on violin for the third chorus. That’s probably Rex Stewart on cornet for the next solo. Then Ben Webster gives us a tenor sax solo followed by “Tricky” Joe Nanton on trombone. listen to that vocal style; it’s why they called him Tricky. Nanton and Stewart are playing with mutes. Barney Bigard takes a four-bar break on clarinet (1:50), then the band starts coming in as Bigard continues. We’ve got the full band at 2:21, with Bigard continuing, to take it out.
“The Mooche” is not a 12-bar blues, but it oozes blues from every pore. Call it an extended blues. This recording is from 1928 and it exemplifies Ellington’s so-called “jungle” style. That style is uniquely Ellington’s; it’s what made him famous.
Just listen to the tonal colors, the shimmering clarinet on top, Bubber Miley on plunger-muted trumpet in the background, to open. Sounds like the drummer (Sonny Greer) is playing temple blocks. Now we change it up (0:46), with trumpets playing the top line. It goes to the clarinet (Barney Bigard), in the lower register (1:10), with Lonnie Johnson answering on guitar. Then Baby Cox does a nasty vocal (1:30) and Bubber Miley returns (1:54), with answers from Johnny Hodges on alto sax. We go back to the beginning (2:17) and start fading to the end at 2:51.
Ellington was a consummate composer and arranger. He worked with a fairly stable group of musicians for his entire career and crafted his arrangements to fit their unique capabilities.
Let’s finish out this session with some late Ellington, with “Blues for New Orleans” from his New Orleans Suite from 1970. It begins with Wild Bill Davis on organ and Ellington playing simple backing figures.
We’re in a medium-slow tempo, lazy and evocative. Davis gets two choruses before the band comes in at 1:11 to engage him in call-and-response for a couple of choruses. The we have Johnny Hodges on alto sax for a chorus. Then it’s back to organ, with Hodges throwing in some answers. And so forth and so on. This arrangement was obviously written as a vehicle for soloists, organ and sax. They keep passing it back and forth. Simple punchy trumpet figures at 5:39 while Hodges wails away on alto. You got it, call-and-response. Over to trombones and Hodges. One-bar break at 6:49 and then we take it out with band, organ, and alto in conversation, ending on one of those trumpet figures we first heard at 5:39.
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Think about what we’ve heard, four 12-bar blues and an extended blues. The arrangements for “One O’Clock Jump” and “C Jam Blues” are quite similar, starting with rhythm section and then the full band enters near the end. “Blues for New Orleans” is pretty much the same idea, but extended over a much longer time. “Blues in Hoss Flat” gives us the full band from the beginning and then opens up for solos after the band has had a chorus, with a distinct shout chorus near the end – a more complex arrangement. “The Mooche” is a different kettle of fish from the beginning. You figure it out, because it’s time for me to have lunch.
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This is the fourth post in my series, “Tell me about the blues.” The series is tagged with the label, tell me blues.
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