ii

Copyright 2009 by Samuel S. Trapchak ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

iii

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine various bass players’ accompanying

approach in the context of jazz that uses uneven meters combined with moving harmony

as in jazz standards. The study explores the foundation of this approach using qualitative

data obtained from interviews with groundbreaking bassists Scott Colley, Larry

Grenadier, and Johannes Weidenmueller, along with analyses of musical transcriptions

done by the author. Findings reveal that bassists use a clave pattern to divide an uneven

meter bar into two, uneven parts; they are then able to feel a half-time pulse, enabling

them to think in larger phrases. They also employ syncopation, over the bar line

phrasing, and pragmatic interaction, to make music played in uneven meters swing with

more fluidity.

iv

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank first and foremost Scott Colley, Larry Grenadier, and

Johannes Weidenmueller for taking the time to grant me interviews that added to my data

and encouraged my research efforts. I would also like to thank my thesis advisor Dr.

Timothy Newman for all his great suggestions and support, as well as Dr. Carol Frierson-

Campbell for her formatting help. Thanks to Dr. David Demsey and to my wonderful

teacher and friend Steve Laspina for being on my committee and making my thesis

stronger. Finally, thanks to Andrea Ferrara for all her support and meticulous proof

reading.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTERS

I THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

Introduction 1

Background 3

The Desire For a New Rhythmic Vocabulary 6

Uneven Meters and the Bass 8

Purpose 8

Methodology 9

II RELATED LITERATURE

Review of Literature 11

III ANALYSIS

Uneven Meters in Jazz Before the 1990s: “Take Five,” “Hat and Beard,” and “Nommo” 19

continued

vi

A Method Emerges 24

The Clave and Half-time 26

Walking Bass Lines 29

Syncopation 31

Phrasing Over the Bar Line and Against the Clave 33

Pragmatism 36

IV CONCLUSION

Summary of Findings 40

Need For Further Research 41

REFERENCES 44

APPENDIXES

A INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 46

B CONSENT FORM 62

C MUSICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS 63

vii

LIST OF TABLES

1 Showing the tempos of various standards performed in 7/4 28

viii

LIST OF FIGURES 1 Eugene Wright’s bass line on “Take Five” Played on all

A sections and solos 20

2 Eugene Wright’s Bass line on the bridge to “Take Five” 20

3 Richard Davis’s first bass line on “Hat and Beard” 22

4 Richard Davis’s second bass line on “Hat and Beard” 22

5 Richard Davis’s third bass line on “Hat and Beard” 23

6 Jymie Merrit’s opening bass line from “Nommo” 23

7 Exmple of a lead sheet for “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” 24

8 Brad Mehldau playing the melody to “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” in 5/4 and Mario Rossy’s bass line 25

9 5/4 clave over two bars showing the three-two division of the bar 26

10 7/4 clave over two bars showing the four-three division of the bar 27

11 Larry Grenadier’s bass line on “All The Things You Are” showing

a walking line (mm. 109-116) 29

12 Scott Colley’s bass line from “Airegin” showing a walking line (mm. 83-84) 30

13 Johannes Weidenmueller’s bass line from “Nardis” showing a walking line

(m. 108) 30

14 Scott Colley’s bass line on the melody to “Airegin” 32

continued

ix

15 Johannes Weidenmueller’s bass line from “Nardis” showing syncopation

and how it lines up with the 7/4 clave (mm. 89-90) 32

16 Scott Colley phrasing over the bar line on “Airegin” (mm. 21-24) 33

17 Larry Grenadier phrasing over the bar line on “All The Things You Are” (mm. 57-58) 34

18 Johannes Weidenmueller phrasing over the bar line on “Nardis”

(mm. 17-24) 34

19 Larry Grenadier’s bass line to the melody of “All The Things You Are” 35

20 Larry Grenadier reacting rhythmically to drummer Jorge Rossy on “All The Things You Are” (mm. 69-70) 37

21 Scott Colley reacting to drummer Bill Stewart (mm. 10-13) 38

22 Johannes Weidenmueller reacting to a rhythm played by Kenny Werner on “Nardis” (mm. 85-88) 38

23 The two half-notes of the 7/4 clave reduced to quarters and the two dotted quarter-notes reduced to one dotted quarter 39

1

CHAPTER I

THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

Introduction

Perhaps no instrument has come as far within the history of jazz as the double

bass in terms of expectations of the performer. When used in early jazz, the bass was

little more than a percussive instrument thumping out the time. Its role has since

developed into one of the most important instruments within the jazz ensemble because

the bass is responsible for maintaining the harmonic rhythm of the tune (Taylor, 2002).

By designating which beat of the bar a new chord will begin on and establishing a sense

of forward propulsion rhythmically, the bass allows the rest of the ensemble to play

freely over a solid foundation (p. 2). The fundamental approach of designating harmonic

rhythm has varied little in jazz, since the vast majority of the repertoire throughout the

first hundred years of its history has been in 4/4 and later 3/4.

Since the bass is so closely tied to harmonic rhythm, bands that change the meters

of jazz standards to uneven meters, such as 5/4 or 7/4, pose a new challenge for the

modern bassist. This practice started becoming popular in the 1990s. Until then,

harmonic rhythm was almost always divided evenly with chords landing either on beat

one or beat three of a four-beat bar, and lasting either two or four beats of the bar in a 4/4

measure and three beats in a 3/4 measure. With the practice of applying uneven meters to

2

standards, chord changes can be divided unevenly within the bar. Because this upsets the

bassist’s balance, a new approach had to be developed.

For a bass player it is essential to develop an understanding of how to approach

this type of uneven harmonic rhythm. Bassists Larry Grenadier, Scott Colley, and

Johannes Weidenmueller are three of the principle architects of this model of bass

accompaniment. With limited models to draw from, these bassists all arrived at a similar

foundational approach to playing standards in uneven meters, mastered it, and then

invented their own unique approaches. Their scale of influence is indicated by how in

demand all three are as sidemen in jazz, and the number of recordings they appear on

with major artists. All three of these bassists are best known for mastering uneven meters

in the world of jazz bassists, but the specifics of their contributions are not yet well

documented. Method books designed to facilitate a student’s ability to play in uneven

meters make no mention of these bassists or any of the recordings they appear on, some

of which are among best existing examples of musicians playing uneven meters.

Understanding the bass in this context is so important to the entire concept of standards in

uneven meters that any musician who wants to pursue this type of jazz must understand

its role.

Although uneven meters are more commonly referred to as “odd” meters, the

author has decided against using this term except for certain instances. This is because

some synonyms of the word “odd” such as “strange,” “unusual,” or “weird” no longer

apply to uneven meters. Since “odd” meters are now fairly common, they have shed these

other characteristics. “Uneven” is a more accurate term.

3

Background

Standards are tunes that are considered necessary repertoire for any jazz musician.

Most standards are from Broadway shows but some tunes written by jazz musicians that

are played or recorded often enough can also become standards. The vast majority of

standards are composed in 4/4, or common time. Common time is the time signature most

identified with jazz and with the concept of swing. The terms “four on the floor” and

“walking bass line” are heavily associated with having four beats in each measure

(Taylor, 2000, p. 24). Common time is a base that jazz has grown up around. At one time,

3/4 or waltz feel was considered “odd” to most jazz musicians (Joahnnes Weidenmueller

and Larry Grenadier in separate interviews with the author). Many tunes such as a

“Lover” by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart were originally composed as waltzes, but

jazz musicians would change the meter to 4/4 (Aebersold, 2000, p. ii). By changing the

tune to common time, jazz musicians were able to apply their existing vocabulary without

altering their phrasing. In 1942 Thomas “Fats” Waller composed the first jazz waltz

entitled “Jitterbug Waltz,” but it was still some time before 3/4 became a typical part of

the jazz language (p. ii). Sonny Rollins composed the tune “Valse Hot,” a waltz based on

the chord changes to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen. One of the early

efforts to make the waltz feel a permanent element of jazz was Max Roach’s 1957

release, Jazz in 3/4 Time. Bill Evans recorded versions of waltzes such as “Alice In

Wonderland” and “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Miles Davis also recorded

“Someday my Prince Will Come” and composed the tune “All Blues,” a blues in 3/4 on

the legendary album Kind of Blue.

4

Despite the fact that they are sometimes called “odd,” uneven meters can actually

be very accessible to the average listener. In 1959, when the jazz waltz was still coming

into its own, Dave Brubeck and his quartet achieved immense popularity with an album

entitled Time Out, made up exclusively of tunes written in uneven or “odd” meters. Based

on the success of this album, the quartet became “the most successful of all organized,

touring, recording jazz groups in the 1960s” (Hall, 1996, p. 83). Paul Desmond, the

group’s saxophonist, composed the most famous track on Time Out entitled “Take Five.”

“Take Five” is the only tune written in 5/4, or any uneven meter, that is widely

recognized as a jazz standard. Despite high record sales, the reviews of Time Out were

unflattering, and many serious jazz musicians were skeptical of this album that

sometimes drew more heavily from classical music than jazz. Also, in the famous version

of the tune, there was no improvisation over moving harmonies.

In the 1960s trumpeter and bandleader Don Ellis emerged as a leading figure in

uneven meters and modern big band music. In addition to uneven meters his orchestra

became known for its experimental instrumentation, use of electronics, and quarter-tone

harmonies. Ellis wrote a book on the subject of uneven meters entitled The New Rhythm

Book (1972). In his dissertation, The Exotic Rhythms Of Don Ellis (2002), Sean Fenlon

devotes an entire chapter to “Attitudes Toward Unconventional Meters in Jazz.” The

quotes in this chapter include a collection of scathing reviews and writings that dismiss

the use of uneven meters in jazz as a gimmick. A quote in Ellis’ book from jazz educator

John Mehegan reads, “…anything that was not in 4/4 could not possibly be considered

jazz” (quoted in Fenlon, 2002, p. 68). Mehegan’s own definition of jazz reflects this

notion: “Jazz is an improvised indigenous American folk music employing eighth, half,

5

and quarter-note rhythmic units moving through a diatonic system of harmony in 4/4

time” (Mehegan quoted in Fenlon, 2002, p. 69). Of course this is inadequate, since one

would have to exclude any jazz that contained triplets or non-diatonic harmony. Fenlon

maintains that the detractors of uneven meters were simply wary of them because they

made otherwise rhythmically advanced players feel insecure. As Fenlon puts it, “For

many, it was easier to condemn the approach as meaningless or absurd rather than

commit the necessary effort to master it (69).”

The most important contribution of Brubeck and Ellis, regarding uneven meters,

is that they exposed people to them. Many people probably never heard an uneven meter

in jazz before hearing the album Time Out. Ellis was also influential in his film scoring.

He composed and performed the music to the 1971 film, The French Connection. Many

of Ellis’ charts have also been performed in high schools, exposing a younger generation

of musicians to uneven meters.

Although uneven meters did not disappear from jazz in the following years, they

were siphoned further away from swing and “traditionalist” jazz. Instead, uneven meters

became a mainstay of the fusion movement throughout the 1970s and 80s. Fusion music

is sometimes identified more with rock and roll but won the interest, at least temporarily,

of such jazz giants as Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock

among others. John McLaughlin’s group, Mahavishnu Orchestra, which featured Jan

Hammer, Rick Laird, Billy Cobham and later violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, was one of the

powerhouses of the fusion movement (Yanow, 2005). They frequently employed uneven

meters as well as what could be called “mixed” or changing meters. Chick Corea’s band

Return To Forever was another group known for its unusual meters, note groupings and

6

clear melodic lines. Herbie Hancock’s legendary group Headhunters became the epitome

of a funk-fusion band and had many compositions in uneven meters.

The Desire For a New Rhythmic Vocabulary

It is impossible to determine who was the first musician to perform a standard in

an uneven meter. This event is certainly undocumented and could well have happened

mid-twentieth century or even earlier. However, recording dates and interviews with

musicians suggest that this practice started gaining momentum in New York City in the

early 1990s (See interview with Weidenmueller, Appendix A). In the opposite way that

musicians of bebop and earlier eras changed waltz feel tunes to common time to fit their

needs, musicians during this period adapted standards into uneven meters, forcing them

to change their vocabulary. Weidenmueller names several key figures whom he met early

on in New York and associates with this movement. They include, Brad Mehldau, Jorge

Rossy, Chris Cheek, Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Marc Miralta, and

John Stetch.

Harmonically and melodically speaking, jazz music has exhausted its resources

because so much has been done with pitch. According to Weidenmueller, “because of the

lack of harmonic development in the last 20 years in the language of jazz… because so

much has been said already…the rhythmic and metric language in the last 20 years has

really developed a lot with playing in odd and uneven meters.” This is not to say that

new, original melodies are unavailable. However, with the advent of arbitrary scales and

free jazz, as well as drawing sources like classical, folk, rock, and even hip hop, the

pallets for pitch have all been used. This left groups of musicians in the early 1990s who

7

wanted to take an original approach to jazz music, turning to rhythmic ideas in jazz that

either had not been explored or were comparatively undeveloped. As mentioned, this

departs functionally from what bebop musicians did with tunes in 3/4, but is in step with

their desire to innovate. Beboppers changed the chords and melodies of standards,

making them more complex. Uneven meters are, therefore, another medium to apply to

standards -- another vocabulary to master.

Pianist Brad Mehldau is almost certainly the central figure in applying uneven

meters to standards. The Brad Mehldau trio has performed definitive versions of many

standards in uneven meters in such an impressive way that they can be regarded as the

first to set a standard of this practice while reaching a large audience. Their method,

which is simple and consistent, has been imitated in nearly every recording the author

could find of an uneven meter applied to a standard and will be discussed at greater

length in Chapter III. In light of his influence, Mehldau can be considered the codifier of

this aspect of the modern jazz language.

Ways of playing with the rhythm of a standard, other than changing the time

signature, were taking place almost simultaneously with the development of uneven

meters. Wynton Marsalis’ 1986 album, Standard Time reflects the same desire for

rhythmic advancement. This recording contains many examples of unusual note

groupings and metric modulations. These devices were also seen in the mid-twentieth

century, used by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Lennie Tristano but were not fully

incorporated into the language and developed further until much later.

8

Uneven Meters and The Bass

In this movement of developing uneven meters, bass players have maintained

their relevancy and perhaps become even more important to the rest of the band. As

primary keepers of the harmonic rhythm, bass players must adapt their bass lines, so

central to the feeling of common time, into a uneven meter. Scott Colley, Larry Grenadier

and Johannes Weidenmueller have done this in such a way that simply by listening to

their bass lines, even a novice musician can understand how the harmonic rhythm of

standards is divided in uneven meters and keep track of the harmonic form.

The bass’ function in uneven meters is to outline a type of half-time that a

musician can count easily and use to keep track of the harmonic rhythm without getting

lost. If musicians do not understand the function of the bass, they will have a more

difficult time playing uneven meters in a relaxed manner. There is a need to document the

techniques these three musicians use the bass to establish the harmonic rhythm in a way

that facilitates conceptualization and phrase structure.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the foundational approach of bass

accompaniment in the context of uneven meters when there is moving harmony as within

standards. First explored is how the bass functioned in early examples of uneven meters

in jazz. These early bass lines that were only applied to vamps and stagnant harmony

evolved when moving harmony became a factor in uneven meter performances. This

study shows how bassists outline the harmonic rhythm clearly by using an ostinato

pattern that has replaced the two-feel bass line and facilitates a conception of half-time.

9

This is followed by an analysis of the individual approaches of Scott Colley, Larry

Grenadier and Johannes Weidenmueller. They make tunes in uneven meters swing and

feel fluid by 1) applying syncopation to their lines, 2) applying over-the bar line phrasing

to make the music more free, and 3) interacting in a pragmatic way with other members

of the group during a performance. The study gives historical context to uneven meters

and shows that they are not just a whim of a small group of musicians, but an evolving

aspect of jazz. According to Scott Colley, changing the meter of a tune is just a different

way of approaching a standard: “They’re great songs… these different standards that

we’ve kind of inherited, but at some point you got to figure out how it really relates to

modern music.”

Methodology

The methodology for this study is qualitative and consists primarily of data

obtained from interviews with bassists Scott Colley, Larry Grenadier and Johannes

Weidenmueller combined with analyses of musical transcriptions of their work done by

the author. The bassists were all contacted via email and agreed to an interview on the

subject. The interviews took place between March 6th and March 27th of 2009 and lasted

approximately thirty minutes each. Johannes Weidenmueller was interviewed in person

whereas Scott Colley and Larry Grenadier were both interviewed over the phone. All

interviews began with the same question: “How is it that you learned to play standards in

uneven meters?” Further into the interview the bassists were asked how they think about

uneven meters in the context of standards and what specific techniques they used to

practice them. Transcripts of all three interviews can be found in Appendix A.

10

Scott Colley gained recognition for his work with Chris Potter, John Scofield, Jim

Hall, and Herbie Hancock. He also has six albums as a leader to date. Colley frequently

uses uneven meters in his own compositions and when playing tunes written by his

colleagues. The recording transcribed for this thesis is from his album This Place (1997).

The track is a performance of the standard “Airegin” by Sonny Rollins adapted to 5/4.

Larry Grenadier is most known for his work with the Brad Mehldau Trio but has

also worked with Joe Henderson, Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman, and many others.

Performing standards in uneven meters is something the Mehldau trio has become known

for. They could be credited with the dissemination of this practice perhaps more than any

other group, and Grenadier has been a member since the early 1990s. The piece

transcribed for this thesis is his accompaniment on the standard “All The Things You

Are” by Jerome Kern played in 7/4 from Art of the Trio Volume 4 (1999) by the Brad

Mehldau Trio.

Johannes Weidenmueller has been a member of the Hank Jones Trio, the Joe

Lovano Trio, the Carl Allen/Vincent Herring Quintet, and the John Abercrombie Quartet,

in addition to being a committed educator at the New School in New York City. Some of

his most exciting work comes from the Kenny Werner Trio, which is known for

employing a wide range of unique rhythms, metric modulations, and uneven meters.

Transcribed for this thesis is his bass line on the standard “Nardis” by Miles Davis played

in 7/4 by the Kenny Werner Trio from the album Form and Fantasy (2001).

Earlier examples of uneven meter playing from the work of bassists Eugene

Wright, Richard Davis, and Jymie Merrit show how far expectations for accompanying

have come in terms of syncopation, over-the-bar line phrasing, and group interaction.

11

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Review of Literature

Very little literature exists on the subject of the bass and uneven meters. That

which does exist tends to fall short of the expectations for a modern jazz bassist. One

likely reason for this is the lack of musicians who have mastered uneven meter playing

and are involved in publishing or education. An upcoming exception is a book written by

Johannes Weidenmueller in collaboration with drummer Ari Hoenig. In their book,

which will be released in May of 2009, they discuss the modern rhythmic vocabulary of

jazz.

Odd Meter Bass: Complex Time Signatures Made Simple is a method book for

bass by bassist and educator Timothy Emmons (2008). According to Emmons, the

purpose of his book is “to help bassists decipher the mysterious language of odd (uneven)

meter rhythm” (p. 4). This is followed by a “What,” “Where,” “When,” “Who,” “Why”

and “How” section that traces the roots of uneven meters back to the indigenous music of

the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor. Emmons acknowledges the use of uneven meters in

classical music by Tchiakovsky, Stravinsky, and Bartok. Emmons’ rationale for why

uneven meters are used is simply “for the emotional effect” (p. 5). He reinforces this

statement by citing Holst’s 5/4 theme for Mars, the god of war in the piece The Planets

12

and in Bernstein’s depiction of the “spastic energy” of the New York City in West Side

Story. He also notes that modern rock bands sometimes use uneven meters.

Emmons has confidence in this book. His method of subdividing time signatures

into smaller groupings that can be counted more easily “always works” (p.5). The first

chapters of the book are devoted to making the student comfortable with the concept of

subdividing and do not contain uneven meters. Odd Meter Bass comes with a play-along

and example CD that illustrates his method clearly. Emmons makes use of simple chord

changes, usually based on the blues, showing how to make a bass line function as the

harmony moves. Also included are sample bass lines applicable to uneven meters and

suggested methods of variation. The examples become increasingly complex as they

move into 9/8, 11/8, and finally into changing meters. Emmons focus is on how to play

over these meters confidently in a reading scenario. He states in the introduction that he

encounters uneven meters frequently when reading in a recording studio or for film or

theater music (2008, p. 5).

Odd Meter Bass: Complex Time Signatures Made Simple is a good resource for

introducing a bassist to uneven meters. For a rock or a session bassist, it might be the

only necessary literature. However, Emmons does not discuss the role of the bass in

modern jazz music with uneven meters. The recommended listening section in the back

of the book is void of any of the bass players who are the focus of this study. Applying

uneven meters to jazz standards in the context of swing goes unmentioned.

Emmons’ approach is based on sub-dividing the measure into smaller beats. This

increases accuracy in a reading scenario and perhaps for a written line, but when it comes

to freeing up the music this approach can be counter-productive. As Hal Galper states in

13

Forward Motion (2005), for the music to swing, and for the performers to be relaxed,

fewer beats need to be counted, not more. Subdividing in this way for any other purpose

than accuracy in reading has a danger of making the music sound jerky and un-relaxed.

The half-time feel is what the performer needs to become acquainted with. This grants

rhythmic freedom within the phrase and helps the rest of the band loosen up. Sub-

dividing is still taking place but the focus should be on a mental state that conceives of

the music in half-time.

Odd Meter Workout (2000), from the Jamey Aebersold jazz play-along series, is a

book and CD package designed to help a student of jazz play in uneven meters. The

Abersold series is among the most successful and popular jazz education tools available.

The CD is in the typical Aebersold format of a rhythm section playing time. The student

is supposed to play along with the recording to get used to the unusual nature of uneven

meters and practice soloing or accompanying. It contains 10 tracks: 1”) First Step,”

which is a sequence of ii-V progressions, 2) “Blue Minor,” a minor blues with a Latin 5/4

feel, 3) “On Green Dolphin Street” with alternating choruses in 4/4 and 3/4, 4) “Guido

Rides Again,” a 4/4 Latin tune with a 3/4 bridge, 5) “Major Scales in 5/4,” a series of ii-

V-Is intended for the student to practice playing scales in 5/4, 6) “Take Five,” the famous

Paul Desmond composition from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, 7) “The Girl From Ipanema”

in a Latin 7/4 feel, 8) “Backdoor Shuffle,” a Jamie Aebersold Blues in 5/4, 9) “Seven for

Twelve” is a groove-based blues in 7/4, and 10) “My Favorite Things” the Rogers and

Hammerstein classic, in 11/4 with alternating between bars of 6 and 5.

The introduction is by Phil Bailey, who gives a brief history of uneven meters in

jazz music. He notes that “Jitterbug Waltz” by Fats Waller was the first Jazz composition

14

to be written in 3/4, and until that time other tunes written in 3/4 would actually be

adapted to 4/4 (p. ii). He mentions the work of Dave Brubeck, Stan Kenton, and the Don

Ellis Band and how they composed music in uneven meters and also Bossa Nova

compositions in uneven meters such as Misturada by Manfredo Fest.

Odd Meter Workout (2000) is a good introduction to the subject of uneven meters

but is inadequate when compared to the modern rhythmic demands of bassists in jazz.

Aebersold states in the discography that none of the tunes contained in this book have

ever been recorded in the meters that they are presented in and lists no other tunes in

uneven meters besides “Take Five” (p. iii). By 2000 there were already numerous

recordings of standards adapted to uneven meters, none of which are found in the

discography. The introduction does not mention any of the artists that are the focus of this

study. Aebersold’s “How to Solo” section is taken directly from his other books and is

not tailored to the unique requirements of playing in an uneven meter.

Aebersold should address more fundamental questions pertaining to uneven

meters such as: What are some recordings of standards in a uneven meter? How does one

convert a tune from common time or a waltz feel into uneven meter? What are the more

common uneven meters that jazz musicians are using? How is the harmonic rhythm

divided and how does it relate phrasing?

Bassists who play jazz in uneven meters almost invariably outline the time with a

type of half-time that will be discussed in Chapter 4 of this paper. Discussion of this

approach is absent from Odd Meter Workout. Although played by the bassist on some of

the tracks, it is not given the specific attention that a student needs to get a firm grasp on

the concept of half-time which is the essential for improving phrasing. All musicians

15

interested in uneven meters, especially those just becoming familiar with them, should

rely heavily on this bass figure for keeping their place in the music. A solid foundation in

the bass is what allows the rest of the band to loosen up.

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (ed. Kernfield, 2001) contains short biographic

information on Larry Grenadier and Scott Colley. It notes the groups that they are best

known for working with: The Brad Mehldau Trio and Chris Potter respectively. The New

Grove Dictionary of Jazz does not mention uneven meters at all in reference to Colley,

Grenadier. It is the belief of the author that if the trend of performing standards in uneven

meters gains more recognition in the future, these bassists will be remembered

specifically for their contributions to it. Uneven meters are not mentioned under Brad

Mehldau either, whose trio with Larry Grenadier made performing standards in uneven

meters one of its signature aspects.

Forward Motion (2005) is the work of pianist, composer, and educator Hal

Galper. In this book he redefines the first beat of the bar and shows that in music it tends

to be used not as the beginning but as the end of a phrase (p. 52). Galper includes many

exercises in the book, both instrumental and mental, to help the student develop an ear for

what Galper calls “target notes” (chap. 1). In Chapter 2, which is devoted entirely to

rhythm, Galper states that “learning to play in half-time is an adult rhythmic behavior” (p.

53). Jazz musicians, in order to obtain a more relaxed feel while soloing, should be

counting half-notes rather than quarter-notes and be thinking of eighth-notes as

sixteenths.

Uneven meters fall outside the scope of Forward Motion, yet what Galper says

about half-time playing is pertinent. Galper asserts that half-time is the key to freeing up

16

a players time feel (chap. 2). For example, when playing a tune that is 300 beats per

minute, it helps musicians to phrase and conceptualize the music if they think of the

tempo as 150 beats per minute and think of sixteenth notes instead of eighth-notes (p.

53). Playing in uneven meters is inherently un-relaxed because of the structure of the

bars. The problem with applying half-time to uneven meters is that if musicians counted

half-notes as they would in 4/4, they would end up on the other side of the beat from

where they started in the previous measure. When Galper discusses improvising in 3/4 his

approach is sound because each chord typically lasts three beats. But in 5/4 or 7/4

alternating chord durations are employed, making the harmonic rhythm uneven. Galper’s

superimposition method works for soloing, but the way the bass functions as an

accompanying instrument is different. A bassist must land clearly on beat one of every

bar unless intentionally obscuring the bar line. This clarity is what allows for the

superimposition of melodic and rhythmic phrases Galper discusses in his book (chap. 9).

In the article, A Personal Approach to Contemporary Jazz: Works for Saxophone

and Computer Controlled Electronic (1996), Neil Leonard states that bassist Jymie

Merrit, following his most well known work in the 1960s with Art Blakey’s Jazz

Messengers, then put his effort towards the use of uneven meters. Leonard cites a

composition by Merrit entitled “Nommo” from the album Live at the Lighthouse by

trumpeter Lee Morgan. “Nommo” happens to be in 7/4 and is a swinging blues-

influenced tune. Leonard talks about working with Merrit in a group and how the

compositions, whatever meter they were in, swung just as hard as anything in common

time (p. 17).

17

In his dissertation, James Blanton, Raymond Brown, and Charles Mingus: A

Study of the Development of the Double Bass in Modern Jazz (2002), Michael Taylor

outlines a broad history of the bass in jazz and its role. According to Taylor early jazz

bass duties were within the parameters of harmonic and rhythmic elements (p. 2). He

evaluates the contributions of three bass players: Jimmy Blanton, who expanded melodic

bass playing within the prescribed rhythmic and harmonic parameters, Ray Brown, who

made melodic advancements pertinent to bebop, and Charles Mingus, who expanded the

harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic role of the bass (p. 19). Taylor provides a model for

examining three bass players and their respective contributions to jazz. This work

contains regional history, cultural history, and transcribed musical examples that support

Taylor’s claims well. The work also contains transcriptions and analyses of bassists

Walter Page, Pops Foster, Israel Crosby, and Leroy “Slam” Stuart.

Taylor provides a model of how to display findings on different bass players. It

contains relevant information about stylistic development in bass playing. Taylor

describes clearly how the bass functions within the rhythm section and how bassists

James Blanton, Raymond Brown, and Charles Mingus raised the expectations of the

modern bassist.

Pops Foster: The Autobiography of a New Orleans Jazzman (1971) is a work by

drawn from interviews with New Orleans bassist Pops Foster edited by Tom Stoddard.

Although this book is mostly historical and contains many anecdotes about being a jazz

musician in the early to mid-twentieth century, Foster also discusses the role of the bass.

He was a key figure in making the transition from a two beat per bar bass line a four beat

per bar bass line and witnessed its development across the country (Foster & Stoddard p.

18

xviii). This book shows that the bass has always been evolving within its fundamental

role. What Foster says relates to the lightness that is desired by modern jazz music. He

mentions how the drummer changed the time-keeping drum from the snare to the ride

cymbal and the bass from two beat to four beat (p. xviii). This can be related to what

modern bassists have done with uneven meters. By using syncopation and other rhythmic

devices they are seeking the lightness that has always been favored by jazz musicians and

leaving behind the practice of adhering strictly to an unvarying, heavy ostinato.

The dissertation, The Exotic Rhythms of Don Ellis (2002), by Sean Fenlon offers

an in depth look at the life and music of Don Ellis. One of the most intriguing sections is

“Attitudes Towards Unconventional Meters In Jazz” (p. 68). Uneven meters have always

had detractors within jazz. Fenlon offers their opinions as well as critics and writers such

as Gunther Schuller and Leonard Feather who looked favorably upon this development in

jazz.

19

CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS:

Uneven Meters in Jazz Before the 1990s: “Take Five,” “Hat and Beard,” and “Nommo”

The three factors in a bass line that work together to define the beginning of a bar

in a uneven meter are duration, tessitura, and pitch. When using duration, a longer note

will usually indicate the top of a bar. When using tessitura, a very low note in the bass

can be used to indicate the top. Usually the bass plays the root of the chord on beat one of

the bar, so pitch is also an indicator. Any one, or all three of these factors could be used

to cue the beginning of a bar for the rest of the band. This chapter shows how these

factors were used in various combinations to define the bar in early examples of uneven

meters in jazz. Also shown is how the use of these factors evolved in the 1990s and how,

at times, modern bassists purposely avoid clearly defining the beginning of the bar in

order to create a more elastic and free sounding performance.

Paul Desmond’s composition “Take Five” is perhaps the only tune widely

recognized as a standard that was originally composed in a uneven meter. When the

album Time Out was released, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was catapulted into the

spotlight. The album is one of the few in jazz to ever go platinum, and “Take Five” was

its biggest individual hit. The melody of the tune is in A- B-A form. Each A section is a

20

harmonic vamp in Eb minor. Figure 1 shows the bass line played by Eugene Wright on

each A section and throughout the solos.

Figure 1: Eugene Wright’s bass line on “Take Five” played on all A sections and solos.

Figure 1 shows the three-two division of the bar with a dotted half-note followed

by two quarter-notes. Wright is using the factors pitch and duration to indicate the top of

the bar. He plays the root of the chord on beat one and this note lasts the longest. The B

section, or bridge of the tune, offers a more active harmonic rhythm in the relative major

key of Gb. Figure 2 shows Wright’s bass line from the bridge of the same recording:

Figure 2: Eugene Wright’s Bass line on the bridge to “Take Five”

Wright does what a good bassist should: he outlines the harmonic rhythm of the

tune and plays a clear bass line. He plays what sounds like a written line or a scale pattern

in the relative major key going downwards diatonically from the fourth scale degree, Cb.

Although the bridge of the tune contains moving harmony functioning in a way similar to

jazz standards, it is not used for the solo sections. Saxophonist Paul Desmond and

21

Drummer Joe Morello improvise only on the A sections of the tune and no form is

adhered to. “Take Five” essentially becomes a vamp until the melody is reintroduced at

the end.

Uneven meters were a staple of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The album Time Out

boasted a time signature unusual to jazz on each tune but these meters, and sometimes

even the form, were not applied to solos. For example “Blue Rondo A La Turk,” a

classically influenced piece in 9/8 contains no improvisation in 9/8. Instead the 9/8

sections are through composed and the solos are over a blues in 4/4, interspersed with

fragments from the melody.

Brubeck and his quartet failed to gain the same respect from the most serious jazz

musicians that they did from the listening public. Johannes Weidenmueller says this was

probably because musicians did not develop uneven meters and make them as

comfortable as music in 4/4. Because Brubeck and his band did not employ moving

harmony while playing in uneven meters, their work became further removed from what

most musicians considered jazz. Therefore “Take Five” remained a novelty to jazz

musicians rather than a challenge to be met. The sudden success of Time Out surely had

the opposite effect on many musicians who did not believe Brubeck’s recognition was

completely deserved.

The 1960s brought new trends, notably modal and free jazz. These new styles

facilitated developments in uneven meters because, for the most part, they left chord

changes behind. Tunes could therefore center around a groove or a one-key vamp in the

same way the solo section of “Take Five” does. One example is “Hat and Beard” from

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Eric Dolphy’s 1964 album Out to Lunch. It begins with a bass line played by Richard

Davis (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Richard Davis’s first bass line on “Hat and Beard”

This bass line serves as the foundation for the beginning of the piece. Early in the

composition, all other parts are based on this bass line. First, Dolphy doubles it on the

bass clarinet, and then Bobby Hutcheson doubles it on the vibraphone. Then the bass line

changes to accommodate a new section of the melody (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Richard Davis’s second bass line on “Hat and Beard”

The octave displacements in Figure 4 line create an angular sound. The dotted

quarter at the beginning of the 5/4 measure is important. With this, the longest and lowest

note, tessitura and duration come into play, marking the form of the two bar phrase for

the listener and the band. This bass line is what Eric Dolphy improvises over on his solo.

At first the line does not vary, but toward the end of the solo Davis plays more freely

while still maintaining the form. He then plays a different bass line that acts as a cue to

the next soloist, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (Figure 5).

23

Figure 5: Richard Davis’s third bass line on “Hat and Beard” Davis clearly defines the bar through duration and pitch. A dotted rhythm cues the top of

the 5/4 bar and the 4/4 bar is a half-step down in pitch making it easy for the listener to

hear.

The similarity between the bass lines on “Take Five” and “Hat and Beard” is the

use of longer durations of notes to indicate the top of the bar. On “Take Five” Wright

uses the dotted half-note. On “Hat and Beard” Davis uses the dotted quarter. Also notice

that the quarter-notes at the end of the bar in Wright’s bass line are found in Davis’. This

leads the listener hear the third beat of Davis’ bass line as a pickup to the last two quarter-

notes. Both of these bass lines contain similar rhythmic functions that outline minimal

harmony.

An early example of a tune in 7/4 can be found on the 1970 recording by

trumpeter Lee Morgan entitled Live at The Lighthouse. As in the previous examples, the

tune “Nommo,” composed by bassist Jymie Merrit, begins with an ostinato figure in the

bass (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Jymie Merrit’s opening bass line from “Nommo”

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Here again is a modal tune with an uneven time signature. Merrit varies this bass line

considerably throughout the tune, creating exciting rhythms, but is restricted by the static

harmony. In 1970, rhythmic freedom within uneven meters was beginning to show, but

was still not found in the context of moving harmony. Also absent from the bass and the

rest of the rhythm section was a loose, over-the-bar line type of phrasing which by this

time was becoming common in 3/4 and 4/4.

A Method Emerges

Pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio with drummer Jorge Rossy and bassist

Larry Grenadier have become very much identified with adapting standards into

uneven meters like 5/4 and 7/4. According to Weidenmueller, “Brad was one of

the guys who… really took it to another level.” As of this writing the earliest

recording of a standard adapted to an uneven meter found by the author was one

with pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Jorge Rossy, and bassist Mario Rossy, on

the album When I Fall In Love, recorded in 1993. Here the jazz standard, “I

Didn’t Know What Time It Was” is changed from the typical 4/4 to 5/4. Figure 7

shows a notation in 4/4 of the first four bars of the tune.

Figure 7: Common lead sheet notation of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”

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Notice the harmonic rhythm of the tune. Each chord lasts two beats. To change the meter

into 5/4 Mehldau adds a beat to the first chord in each measure (Figure 8). Note the

clever syncopation of the melody.

Figure 8: Brad Mehldau playing the melody to “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” in 5/4 and Mario Rossy’s bass line

Rossy’s bass line further illuminates the harmonic rhythm. It shows the influence

of “Take Five,” but it moves harmonically. The bar is still divided into three beats

followed by two beats, but, like Davis’ second bass line from “Hat and Beard,” Rossy

breaks up the three beats into two dotted quarters. This generates syncopation, helping to

propel the piece better than a dotted half-note would. When asked about the harmonic

rhythm Larry Grenadier referred to the tendency of the bar to be divided into a long

section followed by short one. While playing in 5/4 the three plus two division of the bar

is the most common way of playing a standard, and in 7/4 the division is typically four

plus three. This is evident in all examples of standards adapted to uneven meters

contained in this thesis. Weidenmueller maintains that musicians were dividing the

harmonic rhythm in different ways, and ultimately to do it in any way is the goal, but

perhaps that the step in the process of deliberately changing the division was never

recorded. In any case, Mehldau can be considered the codifier of this division, which has

emerged as the most widely used.

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The Clave and Half-time

Playing a standard in an uneven meter can seem a daunting challenge. When

asked about specific difficulties Grenadier said, “…your balance harmonically is off…

and rhythmically.” The first step is to determine how the harmonic rhythm is divided in

this new time signature. On every recording of standards played in a swing style and

uneven meter found, the harmonic rhythm was always divided into a long bar followed

by a short bar. Weidenmueller and Grenadier both refer to this rhythmic ostinato as a

“clave” (klah-vay) (Figures 9 and 10).

Figure 9: 5/4 clave over two bars showing the three-two division

Figure 10: 7/4 clave over two bars

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The term clave comes from Latin-American music. In his book The Latin Bass

Book: A Practical Guide (2001), Bassist Oscar Stagnaro defines the clave as “a two

measure rhythmic pattern which forms the basis for the parts played by all rhythmic and

harmonic instruments.” He continues, “The importance of understanding the clave and its

variations as the root of rhythm for Afro-Cuban music cannot be overstated” (p. 72).

Keeping the clave in mind helps the bassist keep track of the form. That

Grenadier and Weidenmueller employ the term clave to describe the ostinato that they

base their conception of uneven meter playing on is telling of its importance. The

interviews with Colley, Grenadier, and Weidenmueller support this premise. Larry

Grenadier, for instance, explained that the clave functions as his root and helps him to

free up the time. By feeling the clave pattern, the bassist can avoid having to count to five

or seven in every bar. Why is this important? In a 4/4 rendition of a tune that is not a

ballad or slow medium tempo, the bassist feels the bar in half-time. At very fast tempos,

he or she may count only the downbeat of this bar. The great trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie

said, “The faster you play, the slower you count” (Galper, 2005, p. 51). Galper maintains

that counting quarter-notes is a “hold over from childhood musical experience” (p. 52).

According to Galper, a characteristic of rhythmic maturity is counting in half-time,

enabling the musician to play in a more relaxed manner (p. 53). The obvious problem

with playing in half-time while playing in a uneven meter is that after one bar a player

would end up on the other side of the beat. The clave helps the bassist maintain a half-

time feel during the piece without ending up on the other side of the beat. Notice there are

four note values total in Figure 9 and Figure 10 but that the pattern takes up the entire

28

bar. This means that when the next bar begins, the same pattern will be played without

having to land on a different beat.

Larry Grenadier suggested that the clave also keeps him from playing too many

notes in an up-tempo piece. This is another characteristic of most standards adapted to

uneven meters. They tend to be performed at fast tempos, particularly 7/4. Table 1 shows

tempo markings from standards played in 7/4. Based on the quote from Dizzy Gillespi, a

half-time approach would be very useful when playing at these tempos. In fact, when

asked if a half-time approach helps him in a uneven meter, Grenadier said it did because

it helps in 4/4 and all the rules are the same.

Song Title Group Album/(year) Bassist Tempo

“It Might As Well Be Spring”

Brad Mehldau Trio

Introducing (1995)

Larry Grenadier 280 bpm

“Summertime” Joshua Redman Timeless Tales For Changing Times (1998)

Larry Grenadier 298 bpm

“All The Things You Are”

Brad Mehldau Trio

Art Of The Trio Volume 4 (1999)

Larry Grenadier 272 bpm

“Nardis” Kenny Werner Trio

Form and Fanstasy (2001)

Johannes Weidenmueller

250 bpm

“Alone Together”

Brad Mehldau Trio

Art Of The Trio Volume 5 (2001)

Larry Grenadier 322 bpm

“East of the Sun”

Joshua Redman Back East (2006)

Larry Grenadier 280 bpm

Table 1: The tempos of various standards performed in 7/4

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Walking Bass Lines

Playing along with the clave is very useful for place keeping and outlining the

harmonic rhythm in a clear way. Eventually, though, as energy builds within the piece,

the bassist may find that a walking line is more appropriate. Walking bass is heavily

associated with common time by nature of being a steady pulse on every beat. Walking a

bass line in an uneven meter takes practice so that one does not fall back into 4/4. Figure

11 shows Larry Grenadier walking a bass line on Jerome Kern’s “All The Things You

Are.”

Figure 11: Larry Grenadier’s bass line on “All The Things You Are” showing a walking line (mm. 109-116) The third bar of Figure 11 is the top of Mehldau’s sixth solo chorus. At this point the

piece has gathered some momentum and Grenadier has decided to switch to a walking

feel. Notably, there is a lack of linearity here usually associated with a walking bass line.

The bass is functioning almost as a percussive instrument. Bars three and four are made

up entirely of roots and fifths of the chords and are arranged in a way that clearly outlines

the time signature by dividing the bar into a two-plus-two-plus-three pattern using only

quarter-notes. This occurs in many places throughout the piece and is not unique to Larry

30

Grenadier. Figure 12 shows an excerpt of Scott Colley’s walking bass line on Sonny

Rollins’ “Airegin” in 5/4.

Figure 12: Scott Colley’s bass line from “Airegin” showing a walking line (mm. 83-84)

Like Grenadier, Colley uses only roots and fifths in this example, with the exception of

the G natural on the Eb7 chord. He places more importance on outlining the harmonic

rhythm and the three-two division of the bar than on creating a bass line that moves in a

smooth step-wise fashion. Weidenmueller too uses this concept. Figure 13 shows a bar

from the piano solo on “Nardis:”

Figure 13: Johannes Weidenmueller’s bass line from “Nardis” showing a walking line (m. 108) The notes and rhythmic structure are the same: roots and fifths grouped in phrases that do

not create a smooth step-wise line but clearly outline the harmonic rhythm.

31

Syncopation

As useful as the clave is, Weidenmueller cautions against relying too heavily on it

because it can become a rhythmic crutch. When asked about using the clave to divide the

bars he said his approach was about “being as loose as possible within that frame of the

seven, which meant getting away from that basic harmonic subdivision.” His goal in

playing uneven meters is to feel and play them as fluently as one would in 4/4 time where

there is no need for ostinatos or clave patterns to keep track of the form. One way of

making the time feel looser or lighter is through syncopation. As Galper (2005) notes,

this goes back to the teachings of Dizzy Gillespie who said, “The more upbeats you have

in the music the more it swings” (p. 14). Using syncopation this way can be seen by

comparing Eugene Wright’s bass line from “Take Five” (Figure 1) to Mario Rossy’s bass

line from “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” (Figure 8). Scott Colley’s bass line on

“Airegin” gives an example of a third, more contemporary treatment of 5/4. Figure 14

shows the bass line that Colley plays during the statement of the melody.

Whereas Wright’s bass line contained no syncopation at all, and Rossy’s

introduced a dotted quarter-note to the first beat followed later by more syncopation,

Colley’s is bubbling with syncopated accents, freeing the music from the heaviness

imposed by an ostinato pattern. Notice the emphasis on up-beats throughout the example

but particularly in bars nine through eleven in Figure 14. Colley still outlines the clave

pattern anchoring the piece but does not play the actual clave pattern until bar 17 when

the melody has almost ended.

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Figure 14: Scott Colley’s bass line on the melody to “Airegin” Figure 15 shows Weidenmueller doing something similar to syncopate Miles Davis’

“Nardis” in 7/4.

Figure 15: Johannes Weidenmueller’s bass line from “Nardis” showing syncopation and how it lines up with the 7/4 clave (mm. 89-90)

33

The clave pattern is maintained but broken into smaller note values. The two half-notes

are broken into a dotted quarter and an eighth and three quarters into eighths. Still, the bar

is clearly divided rhythmically into four-three.

Phrasing Over the Bar Line and Against the Clave

When asked how he felt he had matured in relation to uneven meters, Colley

stated, “really what I… strive to get… In the same way that most people feel comfortable

playing over the bar lines in 4/4 or 3/4, I want to be in that kind of freedom with my ideas

in any meter that I play.” It could be said of music in general that when a musician is able

to phrase over the bar line, it represents a high degree of freedom within the music.

Figure 16 shows Colley phrasing over the bar line.

Figure 16: Scott Colley phrasing over the bar line on “Airegin” (mm. 31-32) Figure 16 shows Colley’s bass line, during the first chorus of Chris Potter’s saxophone

solo, delaying the resolution of the C7 chord until the second beat of measure 32.

Phrasing over the bar line also came up during the interview with Larry Grenadier

who said, “[the long followed by short clave pattern] is the typical thing but you but it

could go any way. You could divide it up even more than that… or make it much longer

a slower beat that goes over phrases.” Figure 17 displays Grenadier’s approach to two

kinds of over-the-bar line phrasing.

34

Figure 17: Larry Grenadier phrasing over the bar line on “All The Things You Are” (mm. 57-58)

The first type of phrasing is harmonic. Grenadier delays resolution in both bars by

staying on a chord tone from the previous bar, thereby resolving each bar on beat two.

The C# in the first bar is the root of the previous chord, and the F# in the second bar is

the fifth of the B minor chord that comes immediately before it.

The second type of phrasing is both harmonic and rhythmic but occurs against the

bar clave. It is on beat four of the second measure of Figure 17 rather than over the literal

bar line. The phrasing is against the claves four-three division of the bar. The chord

change that has four beats (E7) stretches into the one of three beats (Amaj7) again,

delaying the resolution.

Weidenmueller also stated that in his early days of practicing uneven meters he

would “try to play over the bar line.”

Figure 18: Johannes Weidenmueller phrasing over the bar line on “Nardis” (mm. 17-24)

35

Figure 18 displays Weidenmueller’s over the bar line approach. These eight bars

show Weidenmueller phrasing over the actual and implied bar line in almost every

measure then landing clearly on the clave pattern. When comparing the third bar of

Figure 18 to the second bar of Figure 17 it is evident that Weidenmueller and Grenadier

tie the last quarter-note of the implied four-beat measure to the dotted quarter in the

implied three-beat measure. This obfuscation of beat one is, according to Larry

Grenadier, the simplest way to loosen up the time feel and bring the music closer to the

same fluency that musicians exhibit when playing in 4/4. Figure 19 shows Grenadier’s

bass line on the melody of “All The Things You Are” after an extended piano intro by

Brad Mehldau.

Figure 19: Larry Grenadier’s bass line on the melody to “All The Things You Are” (mm. 1-18)

36

Based on his comments in the interview with the author, it can be concluded that

what Grenadier intends is a very loose feel, and he wastes no time establishing this. He

leaves out beat one of the very first bar. Only in bars seven and sixteen does he literally

play the clave pattern, however, its essence is evident in every bar.

Pragmatism

When asked about developing his approach Grenadier stressed the importance of

“pragmatism.” He explained:

…Overall… my approach to all this and pretty much to music in general is very

pragmatic in the sense that I just kind of do what… comes out… My method of

learning it and playing it has really just been to do it and to… be in the moment…

and just go for it.

This means playing what the music needs and reacting to the other members of the band,

requiring a high level of communication between band members. Figure 20 displays an

excerpt of Grenadier’s bass line near the end of Brad Mehldau’s third chorus on “All The

Things You Are,” where he exhibits this kind of communication.

37

Figure 20: Larry Grenadier reacting rhythmically to drummer Jorge Rossy on “All The Things You Are” (mm. 69-70)

Jorge Rossy begins a rhythmic line based on dotted quarter-notes. Grenadier picks

up on this and syncs up with the phrasing. After this obfuscation of the time, Grenadier

lands strongly on beat one and plays the clave pattern, re-establishing the harmonic form.

Weidenmueller called this “laying down the seven” or marking the form. Colley also

commented on this aspect of bass playing, stressing the importance of playing more basic

ideas until all members of the group were comfortable with the piece. He stated, “I won't

start trying to make abstractions of the forms or stretch them over the bar line a lot. I'll be

a little more conscious.” He then added that when he is playing with musicians of similar

ability, marking the form is still useful: “ while we're, maybe, … experimenting with

poly-rhythms on top of poly-rhythms and stuff, we can still… give each other a clue as to

where we are, and I think that's kind of a great thing to be able to work on.” Figure 21

shows Colley reacting to a half-note pattern played by drummer Bill Stewart then

marking the form by implying the clave with a dotted quarter-note.

38

Figure 21: Scott Colley reacting to drummer Bill Stewart on “Airegin” (mm. 10-13)

The bottom staff of Figure 21 shows where Bill Stewart is placing accents using the snare

drum and how the rhythms of Colley’s bass line interact with them.

Stewart’s pattern consists of quarter-notes with the accent on every other quarter-

note (shown by the X notes in the third space of the staff). This implies a half-note

pattern against the 5/4 meter. The third bar of Figure 21 and to some extent the second,

show Colley breaking away from the clave pattern in favor of something that

complements what Stewart is doing. Then, just as Larry Grenadier did in the third bar of

Figure 21, Colley implies the Clave pattern by placing a dotted quarter-note squarely on

beat one of the fourth bar of Figure 21.

Johannes Weidenmueller also reacts rhythmically to the members in his group.

Figure 22 shows Weidenmueller reacting to Kenny Werner’s rhythmic idea on Nardis.

Figure 22: Johannes Weidenmueller reacting to a rhythm played by Kenny Werner on “Nardis” (mm. 85-88)

39

Werner starts to play two quarter-notes followed by a dotted quarter-note in bar 85.

Weidenmueller then picks up on this rhythm and plays it along with Werner. The rhythm

is the clave pattern played twice as fast (Figure 23).

Figure 23: The two half-notes of the 7/4 clave reduced to quarters and the two dotted quarter-notes reduced to one dotted quarter

40

CHAPTER IV:

CONCLUSION

Summary of Findings

This study shows how concepts that have applied to jazz for decades are in the

process of being incorporated into uneven meters. Historically syncopation has served

the purpose of making jazz lively and danceable. Phrasing over the bar line was

developed by the bebop musicians as a way of improvising more fluently, unrestrained by

bar lines. Finally, pragmatism has always been one of the central aspects of jazz and bass

playing specifically. Bass playing is a balancing act of being interesting and clear but not

obstructive. These aspects of jazz are exemplified in uneven meters by the work of

bassists Scott Colley, Larry Grenadier, and Johannes Weidenmueller.

Interviews with Colley, Grenadier, and Weidenmueller confirm that the long-

short harmonic rhythm that follows the clave pattern is more than a coincidence. This is a

natural and easy way to feel the harmonic rhythm of a tune in uneven meter. All three

bassists acknowledge that while playing a standard in 5/4 or 7/4, they use the clave

pattern to feel the bars. This is also shown through musical transcriptions of these artists

performing uneven meter standards in a band setting. When the rhythmic ideas between

the members of become less certain, the bassist usually goes back to the original clave

pattern to eliminate any doubt about the form. This is not to say that the rest of the band

41

is lost. On the transcribed recordings the clave operates as a musical checkpoint, but

Weidenmueller said that if it seems as though someone is struggling because of too much

rhythmic ambiguity, he returns to the clave pattern because it is easy to hear.

It appears that adapting standards into uneven meters came as a response to a

plateau in harmonic options. Rhythms, and uneven meters specifically, had not been

developed in a significant way for many years. Colley’s statement, “they’re great songs…

these different standards that we’ve kind of inherited, but at some point you got to figure

out how it really relates to modern music” gives merit to the idea that changing the meter

of a tune is similar to changing the chords or melody as beboppers did.

By applying them to standards uneven meters are brought into the tradition of

common repertoire that allows musicians to play together without musical notation,

rehearsals, or even previously meeting. This is more central to the tradition of jazz. Now

that recordings of mixed meters exist with musicians playing as comfortably as they

would in common time, it raises the bar for a new generation of musicians who have

access to these recordings.

Need For Further Research

Applying uneven meters to standards is only one of many possibilities. There are

many recordings in uneven meters featureing the bassists focused on in this study that are

not standards. In terms of harmonic rhythm, some of these pieces function in a

completely different way than the standards discussed within this thesis. If a researcher

opens the door to exploring uneven meters in general, then there are many bassists to

study such as Christian McBride, Miroslav Vitous, Avishai Cohen, Vicente Archer, Ben

42

Street, and others. Dave Holland in particular has a massive body of work in uneven

meters where the harmonic rhythm functions in many different ways.

The bass player is not the only band member who accompanies the soloist. An

analysis of piano or guitar accompaniment in uneven meters could be conducted. The

accompanying styles of Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, Robert Glasper, and others would

lend themselves well to analysis. Drum comping patterns would be relevant as well.

Drummers Jorge Rossy, Bill Stewart, and Ari Hoenig are featured on the recordings that

this study analyzed, but there are many others who play with incredible fluency in uneven

meters such as Brian Blade, Chris Dave, Mark Guiliana, Nate Smith, and Jeff Ballard.

Not addressed in this thesis at all is the topic of soloing. How are phrases

constructed in uneven meters? What are the various approaches between different

bassists/pianists/saxophonists/etc.? A researcher could examine many works by any one

musician or compare several.

Uneven meters, unusual rhythmic groupings, and metric modulations are

becoming a larger part of the creative output of an entire generation of musicians. Young

musicians have access to a wealth of recordings featuring players who have mastered

uneven meters and are applying them freely to standards and to original compositions

with moving harmony. This has never happened before, and sets new standards for a

generation of musicians who have the opportunity to be exposed to it. A study could be

conducted on the abilities of students at a young age to grasp the concept of uneven

meters. These results could be contrasted with the students’ ability to gain fluidity in 4/4

and in 3/4. It is possible that this would allow some conclusions to be made regarding the

cultural affinity in the United States for music in 4/4 and 3/4. From there, the rhythmic

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aptitude of children, or even adults, from other cultures that have uneven meters

embedded in the music of their ancestors could be tested. As Scott Colley said,

…a lot of younger musicians are now more fluent in odd meters than they were…

If we grew up in a different society where five and seven was part of our musical

upbringing then it would have been a lot easier… But now… because of the

internet and… colleges and universities… musicians are playing at a really high

level, I think, at an earlier age, relative to these kinds of rhythms.

It is the belief of the author that as uneven meters become more commonplace, fewer and

fewer people will regard them as novelty. If what has happened since 1990 is any

indication, uneven meters are well on their way to becoming a standard device of the

modern jazz musician.

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REFERENCES

Aebersold, J. (2000). Odd Times: Workout in “Odd” Time Signatures. New Albany: IN.

Jamey Aebersold Publishing.

Brubeck, D. (1959). Time Out. [Compact Disc]. New York: Columbia Records.

Colley, S. (2000). This Place. [Compact Disc]. Copenhagen: Steeplechase Records.

Dolphy, E. (1964) Out To Lunch. [Compact Disc]. New York: Blue Note Records.

Galper, H. (2005). Forward Motion: A Corrective Approach to Jazz Phrasing.

Petaluma: CA. Sher Music Co.

Gridley, M. C. (1991). Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. Engelwood Cliffs: NJ. Prentice

Hall.

Emmons, T. (2008). Odd Meter Bass: Complex Time Signatures Made Easy. Van Nuys:

California. Alfred Publishing Company.

Foster, P & Stoddard, T. (1971). The Autobiography of a New Orleans Jazzman. Berkley:

California. University of California Press.

Fenlon, S. P. (2002) The Exotic Rhythms of Don Ellis. Unpublished doctoral thesis,

Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

Kernfield, B. (Ed.) (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. New York: Macmillan

Publishers Limited.

Leonard, N. “A Personal Approach to Contemporary Jazz: Works for Saxophone and

Computer Controlled Electronics. Leonardo Music Journal Vol. 6 (1996): 15-20.

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Mehldau, B. (1993). New York- Barcelona Crossing. [Compact Disc]. Barcelona, Spain:

Fresh Sound/New Talent Records.

Mehldau, B. (1995). Introducing Brad Mehldau. [Compact Disc]. New York: Warner

Brothers Records.

Mehldau, B. (1999). Art of the Trio Vol. 4: Back at the Vanguard. [Compact Disc]. New

York: Warner Brothers Records.

Mehldau, B. (2001). Art of the Trio Vol. 5. [Compact Disc]. New York: Warner Brothers

Records.

Morgan, L. (1996) Live at the Lighthouse. [Compact Disc]. New York: Blue Note

Records.

Redman, J. (1998). Timeless Tales (For Changing Times). [Compact Disc]. New York:

Warner Brothers Records.

Redman, J. (2007) Back East. [Compact Disc]. New York: Nonsuch Records.

Stangnaro, O. (2001). The Latin Bass Book: A Practical Approach. Petaluma, California:

Sher Music Company.

Taylor, M. E. (2002). James Blanton, Raymond Brown, and Charles Mingus: A Study of

the Development of the Double Bass in Modern Jazz. (UMI No. 3054346)

Werner, K. (2001). Form and Fantasy Vol. 1. [Compact Disc]. Pine Knobs, Indiana:

Double Time Jazz.

Yanow, S. (2005). Jazz: A Regional Exploration. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood

Press.

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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Johannes Weidenmueller

Conducted on March 6th at 2pm

T= Trapchak, W= Weidenmueller

T: How is it that you learned to play standards in uneven meters? W: I think it was when I first came to New York in ’91 there was a group of people that played sessions at peoples houses and one of the places was a house on 2nd street. Jorge Rossy lived there Kurt Rosenwinkle lived there, Chris Cheek lived there. And the other apartment was an apartment with John Stege, Marc Miralta, Seamus Blake and Mark Turner and Josh Redman Came over and Brad Mehldau came over a lot. That circle of people, we played a lot together and for some reason we always called standards in odd meters, we always wanted to broaden out horizons so that’s something we did every session is play at least one tune. T: So it wasn’t a teacher, it was more like your peers. W: Yea I’m trying to think whether there were a lot of people playing tunes in odd meters, if there were a lot of recordings but I actually don’t think so. I think playing in odd meters and the whole metric modulation concept and all that kind of stuff was just a language that was just developing, I actually think it was developing in the context… mostly of those people. Brad was one of the guys who introduced playing tunes in odd meters, in seven, in five, and really took it to another level and he was somewhat part of that group so I think the seeds of that actually at least partially came out of that group of people. T: What was the first recording you know of, of a standard in a uneven meter? W: When you say uneven meter you mean odd meter so you don’t mean 3/4? T: …no I don’t mean 3/4… (I mean) five or seven.. W: Ok Because I remember either talking to Dave Holland or reading an interview with him… I think I was just talking to him… where he said… there was a certain period in

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jazz where people wouldn’t even play in 3/4… it was considered an odd meter, a weird thing and it took a while for that to get introduced. I talked to Dave about that. I’m trying to thinkif there’s a particular recordingI remember the Wynton recordings, Standard Time. Does he play something in an odd meter on that or is it just metric modulation? T: Not overall. There are groupings of 7 but it’s always over 4. W: Right yea. I know that that was an influential record for me in terms of opening my ears to the language of that metric stuff, but as far as a tune in an odd meter, other than “Take 5” or one of those I can’t really think of it right now. T: I want to come back to “Take 5” in a little bit. You mentioned Brad Mehldau and taking that to the next level. What do you mean by that? W: What I mean by that is playing it as if it was in 4/4, or playing it not as if but playing it with a comfort or an ease as if he were playing or if you or I were playing in 4/4. So developing the language [to the point that] you don’t realize that you’re in seven or in five anymore. T: Why is it that you think, because you kind of laughed when you mentioned “Take 5” but why is that song, and the work of Dave Brubeck, kind of a novelty? Why doesn’t that carry the same weight? Why isn’t that the next level? W: Well I think at a certain point that was the next level but I think that it didn’t develop any further. It was treated as a novelty and the language to make that as comfortable as 4/4 never really developed. So it was something that had the novelty effect but never absorbed into the mainstream and never really developed any further. It was always the odd tune in 5/4, it had this 5/4 effect, which was like “wow” but nobody developed that into… absorbed that into the language, it didn’t happen until the 90s. T: The way the harmonic rhythm is divided is usually the same on recordings. If it’s seven it’s a bar of four and a bar of three and if it’s five it’s a bar of three and a bar of two. Did you guys always divide it like that? W: No we certainly were not. I think at first it was more about feeling comfortable in that basic harmonic division so at first it was always about just picking a standard and adapting the melody and figuring out how the changes fall and that, but then as we progressed [we said], “well what else can we do with it and not be stagnant?” So then we would turn it around and say bar of three and bar of four, and then try to play over the bar line and as I just mentioned again. [It] was about being as loose as possible within that frame of the seven which meant getting away from that basic harmonic subdivision. T: The heaviness… W: Right.

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T: That’s created by that ostinato… W: Like I said, we wanted to, and it’s still my objective, play the tune with the same flow as we would in 4/4 and you wouldn’t play that ostinato in 4/4 so why play it in 5/4? T: It’s interesting that you guys did that a lot because I’m not aware of any recordings that aren’t that kind of format. W: Well, if I listen to Brad’s recordings, if I don’t concentrate I get lost. Neither Larry nor Jorge nor Brad lays it down. It’s all flowing. What you’re trying to say is maybe that…finding a recording where it’s purposely turned around and you hear three-four as opposed to four-three, I think there are some but not that many. So that intermediate step was maybe never recorded but the result of that being is completely loose and certainly recorded at least in Brad’s stuff. T: So when you were working on this stuff in the early ‘90s… Obviously you just played it and played it with those guys but what did you do on your own to practice? W: Yea, I mean I think the first step was just trying to play the tunes and sing the melodies and adapt them over the changes, which in itself is a really good exercise, trying to figure out how to compress or expand the melody to fit these different meters. Then I did go through the steps to write out all the possibilities first within that clave, you know turning it around and moving it around and then all the possibilities over the bar line, or a lot of possibilities. In order to develop that looseness I wanted to explore all those possibilities. T: Was there a moment when it finally sounded different to you, when it didn’t sound strange, like an uneven meter, was there sort of an epiphany? W: Well I don’t if sound would be the right… but felt… T: Yea felt. W: Yea I mean certainly there were moments when I felt like I was as fluid in the seven as I would have been in four. I think the only reason why uneven meters are seemingly more difficult to play than 4/4 is because we don’t do this, there should be no other reason. And that is because our vocabulary of phrases is not as developed, it’s obviously much more developed in 4/4. So it’s all about just developing a vocabulary of phrases in the uneven meters and I think the more you have the more that fluid thing develops and I don’t know that I can pin point an epiphany or a certain point where I said “Wow this is it” but certainly gigs where [that happened]. It’s also in the context of playing together where no one was really marking the seven any more and we’re all just playing around with it and we were still “Top of the form?… Yea!” and we were all together.

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T: Yea. So you keep going back to a vocabulary in seven. As a bass player how do you develop something like that? W: Well obviously as a bass player… are you asking about comping or about soloing? T: Well let’s start with comping. W: Comping… Comping for is always walking a fine line between wanting to be loose but also sensing what I need to do in order to hold down the form especially for the soloist or sensing where the soloist might be uncomfortable. Where do I need to lay down the 7? Where is it ok to float a little bit more? It also has to do with who else in the band. If the drummer’s laying down the seven a lot, maybe I don’t have to do it. If he’s completely floating and the piano player is completely floating and I sense the horn player is having a little trouble or something,” I got to lay down the 7. So it depends… for me it’s walking that fine line between being loose and being responsible in the band situation. But again the same exercises in terms of the clave. First being solid with the one clave and then playing the tune and turn the clave around. Playing two-three as opposed to three-two in five and then playing maybe two fast fives (sings) and then being able to play with the bar line and evenetally being able to hear the clave in your head and being able to play anything against it. So being completely free from having to lay anything down because you’re hearing the form, you’re hearing the clave and you can play anything. T: Could you show us what you mean by the clave? W: (claps and says rhythms) So basically you have two dotted quarters and two quarters in the bar and you shuffle them any way you want. Right? And then you extend that over two bar patterns- (demonstrates)- three bar pattern, you could do quarter-note triplets- (demonstrates) Dotted sixteenths-all those kind of patterns which go over the bar line which you can start in different places. Those kind of exercises. T: Cool. Could you talk about the difference between playing in 7 and 5? W: Um. T: Do you think certain tunes lend themselves better to one or the other? W: I don’t actually think so… the difference is the harmonic rhythm. It depends on how you do it, in seven you might think of it as cutting a quarter-note out of two bars right (demonstrates). I’m cutting a quarter-note where five is sort of like adding one. It depends on how you do it. seven lends itself better to faster tunes maybe and five to slower tunes. T: Well five is kind of like a waltz, sometimes it’s felt more like a waltz wouldn’t you say?

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W: Yep T: And 7 is like a walking, swing tune. W: True T: Can I ask you to play a bit? W: Sure T: Let’s just say you were at a session and you either know or don’t these people and they say lets play Days of Wine and roses in 7 and you set it up with the last eight bars. So as far as your experience- how would you play if that’s all the information they gave you. W: (Plays) that’s Days of Wine and roses in 7 T: And in a parallel universe they asked you to do the same thing in 5? How would you do that? W: (Plays) T: So is there anything that you just want to say about the topic that maybe I neglected to ask? W: Well in general I think it’s great that you’ve done that for the uh… thesis. I think maybe because of a lack of harmonic development in the last twenty years in the language of jazz and maybe because of the lack of possibility of harmonic development because so much has been said already. I think because the rhythmic and metric language in the last twenty years has really developed a lot with playing in odd and uneven meters and playing using metric modulation and superimposition having found their way into the language of jazz and now being part of the language that everybody plays or should know. So I think it’s important to be able to do that, practice that, know that because it’s so much a part of tool kit of a jazz musicians today. T: It’s sort of similar to just the self challenging nature of jazz has always been… different chords different melodies… always been, usually more difficult. Faster tempos like in Bebop. Playing tunes faster, put more changes to it, make these crazy heads. W: Right and then the period of simplifying again, and then the period, that’s usually the… contraction and expansion in the history. It’s not that the odd meters were a novelty in the 90’s or whenever we think that whole approach started, I think the novelty was applying it to changes, to forms. There were certainly odd meters and metric stuff was present in the jazz world of the 70’s and 80’s but mostly over ostinatos or vamps. T: Right, even Take 5, the solos, they don’t solo over the bridge.

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W: So not over a harmonic rhythm. I think the new thing with Wynton and with Brad was applying that to the fluidity of the language of a tune. I think that was sort of their approach. T: That’s interesting that you brought up the expansion and contraction thing. Do you think we are in an expansion phase in music? I mean it’s hard to tell if you’re right in the middle of it… W: I’m not sure, I mean there’s a lot of people doing interesting stuff. I don’t know how much the contraction/expansion is related to the popularity of the music the social relevance, to the business side of it you know sometimes it’s done in little private secret cells and then it finds its way into the mainstream a little more after a while. I really don’t know where jazz is at in terms of social significance or relevance or popularity and how that’s going to develop in the next ten years. It seems like it’s a bit on the fringes these days. T: Do you think uneven meters specifically have found a more legitimate, not that they weren’t legitimate before, but more acceptance since they’ve been applied to forms and changes? W: I think so. I mean when I play standards, which I don’t play much anymore, most of the time people will call a tune in odd meter, it’s rare that they don’t. All the original music I play is always [uneven] meter stuff… T: Your compositions? W: Mine too but I play a lot of other peoples original music and it’s very rare that a tune is in 4/4 or even in 5/4. if it’s in 5/4 it’s combined meters. A bar of three, a bar of seven a bar of you know that kind of stuff which is actually an expansion of playing a tune in 5/4 or 7/4 where you’re so comfortable in any kind of meter. For me the point is not to make it sound like it’s in 5/4 or 7/4. Make it sound like music and ok by the way it’s in five or seven but I don’t really notice it. It’s like you play in 4/4 you don’t get the down-beat of every bar rammed down your throat. It flows and ok it’s in 4/4 it happens to be in 4/4, the same case should be with anything. And for me, sometimes the most intriguing music that I listen to is music where it flows and I can’t really figure out, it takes me a little while to figure out what it is. What kind of meter is that in? That’s strange but it’s really intriguing as opposed to something so obvious. Whether it’s in 4/4 or 7/4 or whatever or harmonically… T: Thanks so much for having me, Johannes. W: No problem.

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Larry Grenadier

Conducted on March 18th at 11am

T= Trapchak, G= Grenadier

T: How is it that you learned to play standards in uneven meter? G: Truthfully, I don’t remember the first time I did it. In recent history for me it was with Brad and Jorge. I’m sure I did it before that at some point but not as much as we ended up doing it later. What I could remember is doing it with Brad and Jorge when we first started playing together in the early 90’s. T: Do you know of any, because I’m not aware of, earlier recordings of anybody else doing this. G: Oh well I’m sure there are… let’s see…I never really thought about it but I would think so… doing standards specifically? T: Yea G: … Wow. You know you got me but I would think there has to be. But we weren’t listening to it I guess (Laughs). But I’m sure [there are] cause you know a lot of people were playing in five and seven. You’d have to ask other people but I guess you haven’t found anything so far and this is what you’re studying right now so… that’s interesting. But anyway for me it was with Jorge and Brad. They had… done some playing before I even started playing with them so they were already playing a few tunes. And Jorge was so relaxed with it and strong that I could kind of mess up and it was ok. Brad and Jorge had it together so for me it was really just kind of falling into it and getting used to it after a while. T: So what was that like falling in with those guys? G: Well it was very natural in general. Specifically playing in odd time signatures I had played in odd time signatures before that but I think just the way we got to opening it up was unique to what we were doing. So it took a second but it was pretty quick. And I think for me it was just finding my own way through it so I could play looser and still maintain a strong foundation in the band. It was trying to find that balance. I think that might have taken a bit longer than anything. T: So what do you mean by “looser”? G: Well not being so obvious about the statement of the time. It’s the same thing in 4/4. Not necessarily playing all four beats. Or at least even less specific but more conceptual

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how you can open up the time in 4/4 is… well the simplest way is not to play beat one. And that same thing will work with playing in odd time signatures as well because you stop playing one and all of the sudden it opens it up. Something as simple as that is the same thing in 4/4 or in 7/4 or 5/4 or whatever. T: What about the bass specifically. What do you think is the biggest thing that changes when you take a standard that you’ve played a million times in 4/4 and now all of the sudden and now all of the sudden it’s in seven? G: Well your balance is off. Your balance harmonically is off and rhythmically so… that’s the only difference. So just getting used to that. It’s a different dance. It’s a different motion but everything else is the same. T: What about the harmonic rhythm? How is that usually divided? G: Well you could do it however you want but it tends to typically go for 7/4, four and three and for 5/4, three and two. I’ve done other ways too and sometimes you can do, well you can always do them over each other to open it up too so… T: Sure like in solos G: Yea or like in the bass line. That’s the typical thing but it could go any way you could divide it up even more than that so… or make it much longer you know a slower beat that goes over phrases. T: Over the bar line? G: Yea. T: So how do you feel something like that? How are you mentally wrapping your mind around going over the bar line and what is the nature of a half-time since now it’s uneven? G: Well it’s going to vary. I got to say overall though that my approach to all this and pretty much to music in general is very pragmatic in the sense that I just kind of do what comes out. It’s not too thought out. Especially with the odd time signature stuff, I haven’t really broken it down like some people have. My method of learning it and playing it has really just been to do it and to be in the moment of it and just go for it. Well hey, I guess I have to clarify a little bit because there was an early time [when] I would write out stuff to see how it looked on paper so that if I wanted to play through it it would help me to actually write it out. Occasionally that would come up but, in general I feel like because of the way I learned how to do it was just by playing making music of it right away, it didn’t start as an exercise leading into a performance thing. For me it was performance oriented to start so I think I just did what I had to do so that I didn’t fall on my face (Laughs). And so that’s the way I learned to play jazz in general really. So when it came to this it was the same thing. Just using your ears like you do in every other form of

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making music and responding to what’s going on around you and just reacting to it on a musical level. So I guess getting back to your question… I would break it down to have[ing] creative responses to what’s happening around me. So if I hear the drums doing something I might play something that really is similar to that or I might play something that varies from it in a way in a way that it balances if. If the drums are stating the time really clearly then I might state it a lot less clearly or visa versa. Those type of musical decisions that come up… that’s kind of more what I’m dealing with rather than… what’s another way I can break up seven into 49 beats (laughs. I never went raga (laughs). T: So what about half-time though? And the reason I ask is because a lot of music educators suggest that it’s easier and more natural to feel tempos in half-time and if you can play…to feel eighths notes as sixteenths and stuff like that. Do you think of it like that and if so how do you do that in uneven meter? G: Well you know I guess I do… T: So is it the clave? Or is it half-notes over the bar line or does it all just depend? G: It yea I’d have to say it all depends because you know I do think about a clave and then that helps me free it up because if I have a clave in seven and I’m going (sings clave pattern) You know two [and two] and three then that’s like my root. Then I have that internalized so I don’t have to play all of it. Sometimes that lets me hear it in a larger phrase so it is like half-time it’s over two bars or four bars. I guess I am kind of thinking of it in half-time. T: Because to think of seven in quarter-notes can really fast. G: Well it depends on the tempo though. I mean the reason why a lot of the time I break it up maybe is just because it’s so fast and I don’t want to play too much? It’s just too busy of a line. I mean even with this clave (sings clave) you’re already breaking it down into half-time in a way because the first four beats are just two beats now. It’s like I said I never really break it down like that theoretically. If it happens it happens naturally as a response to what’s happening around me. T: So in 7/4 it’s the four, three division and in five it’s the three, two… what do you think it is about that that’s really caught. Versions of tunes I hear by other groups besides you guys, they all seem to do it the same way. There seems to be this consensus that “this is kind of how we’re going to break it up.” Even my experience in playing with bands at school or somewhere else. When someone says “we’ll do it in seven” everyone knows exactly what that means and how they’re going to divide it. G: Well that’s a good point because I guess people play like that in all different situations you know… even with 3/4 it’s like how is that going to sound or like when somebody plays a tune and everyone thinks about one version of it and they all play similarly. It could go anywhere. I have heard people do some interesting things that you know

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definitely different. Just travel around. People I think like to play that way because it gets you off balance. And it makes you play stuff very differently than you normally would. T: Well let’s talk about that. I mean why do you think people started playing standards in uneven meters in the first place? G: Well [uneven] meter back 40 years ago or 50 years ago was 3/4. And people started playing some tunes in 3/4 that were in 4/4. I think it’s the same thing. It’s just to do something different just put you off balance a bit. T: To challenge yourself? G: Yea, and I think a listener kind of gets off on it too because it makes you feel the music a different way even if you’re not sure what’s going on. And also the way the musicians get to phrase over it to a more naïve ear [it can] sound more free. So they can dig that and it’s not so hitting you over the head with what the time is. T: The half-time thing helps with that too. G: I think so because it helps with 4/4. I think all the rules are the same with the cause and effect of what happens when you do something in either meter. It’s the same in four as it would be in any other meter. I think it’s going to feel different [but] it’s the same reaction. T: So do you think certain tunes lend themselves better to changing to an uneven meter? It seems like five is felt like a waltz G: Yep T:… and then seven is like you said, a four and a three. G: Right T: So it seems like if you were going to put something into five, it’s almost like first you’d have to change it to a waltz and then cut out a beat from the second measure. G: Yea in a way if you think of it like then you start to think of it like a truncated three. But you know if you think of it like four plus one, then puts you in a whole different thing. T: Sure like if each chord was five beats. G: Yea, exactly like if you had two chords per bar or one chord per bar. So that’s the only thing you have to start thinking of when you’re picking tunes is how many changes are in the bar and then how you are going to divide it up. If you just have one change per bar

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and you want to play it in 7 then all the sudden you have to play it probably twice as fast because you don’t want to spend that much time on each chord. T: Right. So with the trio have you picked any of those tunes to change to uneven meter? Just out of curiosity. G: Huh. I don’t think so. You know, and most of the ones that we’ve done we kind of, well I shouldn’t say that, not most of them, but like “It Might As Well Be Spring,” is something we still play. Some of them have kind of stuck around for a long time. T: So I’ve been doing some transcribing also for my thesis, and you do some really interesting stuff. It seems like one way that you break up the 7 and, I think it really does something, is you play a lot of “V’s” of the chords on the down beats. Is that something that you have… G: Something I’ve thought through? T: Yea. G: I’d say to the extent that I can do it. I think that’s one way for me to open it up and have it sound different than just you know 7. T: Well it has this really nice way of opening up the harmony a little bit and still, it’s always clear. G: My method for that is really to use the clave as… when the music needs some sort of foundation just like I would lay down a strong 4/4 walking line if I felt the music needed that. And then when you delay or anticipate one you’re on kind of another kind of plane or angle from what the normal rhythmic phrasing is. That kind of, that off start or jump start or whatever it is, to the beat kind of influences what is going to happen to me. I think more like that: delay or anticipate a beat. Just like I would in 4/4 in a way playing on the and of one or the and of two and the and of seven. That’s a big one for me and that starts a whole other phrasing. But the V thing is kind of a similar thing. It’s displacing and elongating the phrase. T: Well I just want to thank you again Larry. It’s been great talking with you. G: My pleasure man, good luck with this. T: Thanks

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Scott Colley

Conducted on March 27th at 12pm

T= Trapchak, C= Colley

T: How is it that you learned to play standards in uneven meters? C: Probably, it'll sound like a pretty obvious answer to the question, just by taking standards, and putting them in whatever meter seems interesting to me. Sometimes I'll alternate bars where I have, for instance, the first bar of the song would be 4/4 the second bar would be 3/4, and that way I would connect the whole thing and kind of teach myself how to play in seven. Or I might take a bar that is normally in 4/4, I would divide it into, if it's seven for example, two-two and three, and then alternate that experimenting with three-two-two, which is als a challenge to play in. A lot of people aren't really used to playing that way, so it kind of challenges you in a different way. You can take songs you think you know really well and make them a little more challenging by alternating the meter that way. It's also interesting for me to do that in combination with putting a standard in a different key, and then all of a sudden a song you think you know new challenges. You discover new things about the song that way, too. T: So this is something you started doing to challenge yourself? C: Yeah, I mean, because I had been writing music in odd meters since I started writing in college, and all my friends seemed to be interested in writing that way. It's important to really spend time practicing that. So that it just doesn't surprise you when you go to play it with other people. It's something that has to be part of your daily practice for a long time, and even when you get comfortable in seven and five and then somebody gives you a new combination of meters. It's like going back to the beginning again, and I'll set up something with a sequencer, or kind of an elaborate metronome to remind me when I screw something up. And that way I can make it part of my practice. I always try to combine that with other things that I'm trying to learn. If it's a new form that I've written or something someone else has written for me to play or a standard that I haven't played, so I'll combine the different things always to try to make it interesting for me. T: Do you remember the first recoding you hear where, or maybe it wasn't a recording, but the first time you heard a standard put into a uneven meter. C: Not really, no. I remember when I was first playing and being aware of things that Dave Brubeck was doing and a few other people. But I don't really remember the first time. I started playing when I was eleven, and I definitely wasn't playing much uneven meter stuff then, (laughs). But I did get much more interested, especially in college. Then I was playing a lot of modern chamber music and also all my friends in college were writing odd meter stuff so that was when I really started to explore and try and get better

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at interpreting them. T: And what years were you in college? C: I was at CAL Arts from 1984 to 1988. T: And then when you came to New York, obviously a lot of people were doing that. C: Yeah, well a lot of the people that I still play with today I met very early on in the first month that I lived in New York: Chris Potter, Dave Binney, Adam Rogers, a lot of other friends that I still play with a lot now who are around my age that I started playing with in New York when I first moved here in 1988. So we would get together and play odd meter stuff over standards, but then also we were all kind of writing and just bringing scraps of ideas, almost like a workshop, and we'd just play together, sometimes two or three times a week. And that's really the only way I know to really get good at it and be able to interpret it. And again, there's always going to be something you work on, like a certain grouping, and you get familiar with a certain combination of meters or certain thing, and then somebody brings you something else and it's a brand new challenge. So it's always something that I'll be working on as long as I'm playing music. T: How has your approach to that matured? How does your conception of how you think of and odd meter or uneven meter differ from when you started working on it? C: I think, over time, I become more fluent and for whatever better word, I feel more comfortable playing over the bar lines with odd meters. And to me, that's really what I kind of strive to get to. In the same way that most people feel comfortable playing over the bar lines in 4/4 or 3/4, I want to be in that kind of freedom with my ideas in any meter that I play. That's when I kind of know that I'm getting more comfortable with it. Obviously in the beginning when someone gives you something brand new you have to count. You have to think about the ideas and where your phrasing groups of 4, groups of 3, you know, depending on whether even or odd parts of the phrase are. But then eventually you start experimenting with playing over the bar line and then it becomes, you know, you can play longer phrases through groups of 5 or 7 or alternating 5 or 4 or any kind of combination. you become more familiar with it, and then you hear them rather than having to -- you internalize those ideas rather than having to think, "I'm playing 5 now, I'm playing 4, I'm in 7." You just hear the overall flow of the song, and that, to me, is when it becomes a lot more interesting, a lot more -- the ideas become more natural. So yeah, there's a lot of songs that I've written, actually, that have come out of that process where I'll find something that's difficult for me to do and I've used this example in a lot of clinics that I've done. Is the first song on my last record Architect of the Silent Moment, the first song, “Usual Illusion,” came out of this p I felt very process. I felt very comfortable playing in four obviously, and I felt comfortable playing in seven, but alternating four and seven back and forth and back and forth I would find I'd either go into four or go into seven or I'd go into eight and go into seven. So I made that song just first by setting up something of a metronome that would kind of remind me when I'd

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mess it up -- so it's basically a long fifteen, but I wanted to divide it in four-four-four-three, so you can think of it as eight quarter-notes and then seven quarter-notes, so it's a long fifteen. And so I made the metronome so that it would remind me when I stayed in eight over the seven or stayed in seven over the eight, and you know, I just wanted to get more familiar with it. Then eventually I made a bass line in a tonality that was a little but challenging and required a lot of movement on the bass and then over the top of that I kind of thought it would be nice to play -- to be able to phrase solo-wise, in 5/8 over the long fifteen. And so that's where the piano part comes from. And then I sequenced that piano part and it just kind of came out, but then played over the top of it as my practice each day. For a half-hour I would just play over that until I was comfortable playing -- phrasing over the 15/4 and then it just seemed natural. Then all I needed to do was just add a melody and I wrote a bridge, and then I rehearsed with the band and went on the road, playing it every night for a month and recorded it and that to me is a lot ore interesting way of practicing. It also brought a song out of it, and after I play it a month and record it, I'm already fluent in it. So, in a way a lot of things, and it's not just with odd meters, with a lot of things I like to try to create the things I'm going to practice out of things that I can't do, or things that I'm interesting in learning how to do. And then it kind of integrates the whole musical process, rather than just reading a book, reading out of an Etudes book or a rhythmic book that somebody else has already created and in your mind you get bored really fast, and it's not that interesting. It's because it's not integrated in the whole musical process of composition and practice, performance, recording. It can all be part of one big process. It makes it a lot more interesting to practice. T: In your words, what's your role as a bass player behind a band when there are changes going by and maybe you all played a million times because it's a standard or something, but now all of a sudden it's in five or seven? C: My role will change, depending on everyone's ability to play that meter well, my ability to play it well, or fluently, and each member of whatever size group that I'm playing with. If I hear someone struggling with the meter on some level, then I'm not going to play with all kind of other poly-rhythms going over the bar lines and all this stuff. In other words, if I'm playing this in the melody, and I'm playing a bass function and I'm accompanying a soloist, for example, and I may be very fluent in it, but they might not be -- and, in other words, you kind of adapt and know that your responsibility is to the whole group. This is the way I think about it: if I feel that everyone is really able to have a conversation over this form on this high level then I can -- my role is loosened up. I may decide that the best thing to do, or the most musical thing for me to do is to play just the bass line over and over. And if I decide that's what I should do -- what would be most musical -- then that's what I'll do. In other moments in the music, I'll see that we can really try and stretch things. A good example would be when... We just recorded a live CD with Antonio Sanchez's quartette with Miguel Zenon and David Sanchez, and when we bring in the first few days, I think we had just a rehearsal and a sound check and we ran through some songs, and some of the songs are brand new to everybody. And so we're all playing pretty literal interpretations of what is the written material until we become, all become, comfortable with it together. Some of the songs I'd played a lot, but other people in the band hadn't. So, in that sense, I want to be really

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conscious just to help somebody to become, you know, to internalize this material. So I won't start with some kind of -- I won't start trying to make abstractions of the forms or stretch them over the bar line a lot, and stuff. I'll be a little more conscious. So I guess the answer would be -- it always depends on the specific musical moment. Sometimes we'll be playing a very specific bass line and it's a complicated meter and you begin to stretch and the other band members will begin to experiment, and then all of a sudden you realize that you're losing the foundation of the meter. And in those moments you have to do something that kind of cues the other people. It's a lot easier to do that with musicians that you're really familiar with. I mentioned Antonio playing drums, or Brian Blade, or somebody like that that I've played with a lot. It's very easy for us to give each other very subtle cues about where we think one is. So then while we're, maybe, then experimenting with poly-rhythms on top of poly-rhythms and stuff, we can still kind of give each other a clue as to where we are, and I think that's kind of a great thing to be able to work on. That whatever level the people you play with a lot, it can be very helpful to work on those kind of relationships. It helps everybody kind of learn more about these kinds of rhythms and ways of communicating. T: So, for my paper, I've done some transcribing, and I transcribed your bass line on “Airegin” from your This Place album. Is that your arrangement? C: I think that was Chris' (Potter) idea, actually. I'm not sure, that was a long time ago. But I think that was something -- that was Chris' arrangement. T: What made you put that on the album? C: I don't remember exactly, I guess that's -- we were playing a lot as a trio and touring a fair amount, especially in Europe, with that group, so that was one of the things that I know we had played a lot, I think, at that time. And it just felt good. I wanted to have a few standards besides what I was writing myself. But whenever I do a standard, as much as possible, anything like that, I'm trying to figure out a little something different that I can do with it that makes it interesting and I think that was Chris' arrangement, and we just decided to put it on the record. T: Since the 90s or so, this has become kin of a really popular thing. Why do you think that is? C: Well, I mean, they're great songs, you know, all these different standards from the American Songbook that we've kind of inherited, but at some point you gotta figure out how it really relates to modern music and try to figure, out as musicians, new ways of interpreting these old songs. It's just and interesting way to go about it. T: It seems like, since uneven meters have been applied to standards, and they use this moving harmony, it seems like that's kind of opened up a lot of doors for a lot of composers in Jazz. Do you think that's true?

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C: Oh, definitely, yeah. And I think musicians, now, relative to when I was in college, I think a lot of younger musicians are now more fluent in odd meters than they were, just because the process has made it so that a lot of younger musicians are doing it more than I was, growing up. When I was in high school especially, if somebody bought in something in 5, it was this you shock, you know it created some level of panic, and you had to try. But if we grew up in a different society where 5 and 7 was part of our musical upbringing, then it would have been a lot easier, but I grew up in the United States, and there wasn't a lot in popular music or folk music that you heard that exposed you to that. But I think now, certainly because of the internet and a lot of other things, and a lot of learning institutions, colleges and universities, that musicians are playing at a really high level, I think, at an earlier age, relative to these kinds of rhythms. T: Yeah, and it's really part of the language now. C: Yup. T: I want to thank you again for your time. C: My pleasure.

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APPENDIX B: CONSENT FORM

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APPENDIX C: MUSICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS

Scott Colley’s Bass Line on “Airegin”

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Larry Grenadier’s Bass Line on “All The Things You Are”

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Johannes Weidenmueller’s Bass Line on “Nardis”

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