Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Jazz Study Group: Autumn Leaves, ATTYA, etc.

hey nikalette,

i think i heard that eva cassidy version a while back. there is a nice little piano solo in there, right? i'm going to go listen to that again.

the jarrett version is wonderful too! what a beautiful piano tone.

hey btw,

i was just listening to that jarrett version of autumn leaves. at the very end he quotes another tune. it's a bit more than just a quote because he actually goes into the changes of the other tune for a few seconds.

just a little trivia: so what's the quoted tune?

any takers?

Yes it is a lovely piano solo. She has some good musicians playing with her on her albums. Now I have to listen again to Keith Jarrett and figure out what you referenced.

nikalette,

he goes into the quote at about 7:25.

Hi all,

I don't use much walking bass either, mostly just for variety here and there, usually in the bridge. I like to use some chords along with single notes in the right hand, though, to fill it out a little while playing a simple walking bass line with the left hand.

Don't Get Around Much Anymore
http://www.box.net/shared/2kcdbnveig


I agree, the Bossa Nova bass line can be used in so many different types/styles of songs, not just Latin. I'm using it for the song "Watch What Happens" for example.

How about "Speak Low?"

Shhhh.....not so loud...

yes, speak low! exactly!

isn't it really nice how he plays a little bit of it there at end?

Jazzwee,

Do you happen to remember what fingering you used in the left hand for Oleo? I never found fingering I was comfortable with.

Thanks,

Ed

Riddler, I don't know if my LH fingering is the best but the most difficult part is the triplet. Let's see if I remember....


A Section (LH Fingering)
4 2 4 1
2 1 2 4
(2 3 2) 1
5 3 2
2 4 1 2 4 2
2 4
2 1 3 2
4 2 4 1
2 1 2 3 4

Now that you say it, I do recall the Speak Low quote at the end there. And yes Jarret's tone is just exquisite! I haven't heard him live and I wonder how loud he actually plays since he's miked. I've tried to duplicate that tone and I found the touch has to be light for me to come close. If he plays at a high volume I don't know how he does it.

BTW - I transcribed a big chunk of that solo as well as Bill Evan's version. Amazing stuff. I learned a lot.

yes, very subtle and lovely...

Fingering of Donna Lee is just horrendous. Like I said it's a finger mangler. It just shows that Donna Lee was meant for the saxophone and not the piano. I remember as I got faster and faster on it that the previous fingering didn't work. So I must have changed my approach 3 times before I settled on a final version. And trying to swing that at an uptempo pace is challenging.

When I first tried to solo on it years ago, the break between the Head and the solo was very obvious because it sounds so different. But as Charlie Parker sunk in my brain/ears over the years, you really pick up on his style a little and now I solo more in keeping with the original melody. It's a fun project.

Nikalette, if you can spot Speak Low than you must have spent a lot of time listening to jazz. That's fantastic!

jazzwee, your teaching technique is cool...So I got the 1-7 in the left hand, the melody in the right, then I did the 3rd in the right (which feels a lot easier than playing the melody), then I did the next step...adding some note to the 3rd and mixing it with the melody, and chord tones, and all of a sudden, I find I can improvise, because for some reason, I'm hearing what I'd like to sing, and able to play it (kind of)...it's very beginner and basic but I think it's the first time I've liked what I'm improvising and even more, for me, is that it sounds like something vocal. When I sing jazz songs, I don't think at all about what I'm doing, but my voice just naturally can go places that sound good with the chords, that's what I've been wanting to do with piano...then of course eventually to be able to do things on the keyboard that I could never do vocally.

Nikalette, you are understanding what I was saying. Fabulous! That simplistic sounding 1/7 + 3 thing is the basis for a more complex sound later on so it is important for the hands to automatically take this shape without thinking.

It's the basis of voicing a tune like this:

My Foolish Heart
http://www.box.net/shared/v3x3kodbys

It allows you to play any tune in the real book with very little effort using the "shell". Then you come back and refine it based on concepts like 3+2 voicings (which is one of the latter lessons.

hey jazzwee,

nice rendition of my foolish heart! loved the change that you played...8 bars into the tune.

i usually play F#7 to F7 there. what was it that you did there? was it C-7b5 to F7 ?

anwyay, it sounded very nice, and a little different from the way i've usually heard the tune.

Well, I'm following the steps you laid out on faith. It is tempting to skip ahead, but I really want to get this. After I played the 3 in the right hand against 1/7, and started embellishing it a bit, I tried pausing after playing the LH shells and imagining what I thought should/would come next, and when I played the 3rd, that was the note I was hearing.

The 3rd is such an attractive sound. I like to improvise harmonies when someone else is singing, and I suspect a lot of that is made up of 3rds.

That's a very lovely interpretation of My Foolish Heart.

Thanks Dave, the original changes I was using said
| C-7b5 F7b9 |.

Bill Evans version I believe. Voicings were my own so I'm glad it sounded ok

Hi Nikalette, since you're well versed in theory, the voicings are based on the concept that the quality of a chord can clearly be heard just by using the guide tones (7th and 3rd of the chord). Without the guide tones, the harmony is unclear and thus the chord movement not well defined. Sometimes that can be a desired effect on modal tunes, but not on a typical 2-5-1 progression like in AL.

One of the things I was taught is that the harmony you intend should be clear at all times, either from voicings or from the solo lines. So even with a complex solo, the listener knows your place in the "form". With a 1/7 shell on the LH, this pretty much guarantees the 3rd should be in the RH solo or voicing. But even beyond that, in later lessons, we specify that such important chord tones be on the downbeat. So the concept keeps getting extended. And that's what makes for better solos.

You have a strong ear as you are naturally realizing that.

Rest assured that whatever I teach here is good stuff as my teacher is a well known jazz artist. Although I teach one way and there are other valid approaches so keep your mind open to other people's advice as well.