A sort of Ken Burns question

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by David Powell

This is getting to some more of what I was asking. I have subbed in a "smooth jazz" trio. Some of that list did overlap with what we do in the 5th Sundays quartet, but the arrangements are different. 5th Sundays plays a little more like Tom Waits (loose, down tempo, and on the darker side). That smooth trio did Summertime as well as Smooth Operator and also Ain't Misbehavin' but the titles don't exactly give you the delivery. So I'm thinking when I hear Dave Bass do Roxanne by the Police, this is more like Coltrane's Greensleeves or Favorite Things. But beat wise, tempo wise, and general feel, what makes something Swing, Bop, Hard Bop, etc. Is there any way to generalize the differences? For instance when you described "When I play two beat I try to sound like Percy Heath...." I have something with Percy Heath I immediately pulled out to listen to so I could hear what you mean. Can you give me some more examples?

I think I know "latin", but Gene Cherico plays it different than Tommy Williams for instance on "Quiet Nights". In two recordings I have both with Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, Williams syncopates it a bit but Cherico plays straight on the down beats and is more subtle with the harmonics in the line not always using the tonic, which gives is somehow a different support of the melody line. I transcribed one verse of the Cherico line because I really liked the way it was different. William sounds more like what I hear as straight "latin". Feedback, please?

That Percy Heath statement has to do with one thing: THE FEEL...unfortunately, as we all know, you can't teach the feel.
The Gene Cherico statement is exactly a good example. Brazilian music is ALL about FEEL....the simpler the better in terms of notes and unlike jazz, you need to pull back in terms of where you put your notes. In jazz, normally, we play a bit ahead of the quater notes to propel the music ahead and help to " lock in " the time.
And in case you weren't aware, Gene was Frank Sinatra's road bassist for years, which says a hell of alot about his feel.
A famuos Brazilian drummer friend of mine named Claudio Slon did a brazilian record with Ray Brown. It just didn't work. Ray played too ahead of the beat. He just couldn't pull back.
Normally when we play jazz in two beat, it creates tension ie....you just can't wait for the tension to release into four.
Listen to all those Oscar Peterson/Ray Brown things...it doesn't matter whether it's a trio with guitar or drums or both. They always play a couple chourus' in TWO to build the tension for when they open it up into four.
Same with Percy, you know he'll go into four eventually. That MICKEY gig I was talkin' about was just my play on Percy playin' in two all night. Percy can swing, be it in two or in 7 or what the hell! With Percy, you get meat and potatoes....with Ray, you get the gravy too because of all those fills he plays.