MAY 1941 |
MINTONS
PLAYHOUSE |
Hotel Cecil, 210
West 118th Street |
|
32 BARS
(AABA) |
Key of |
|
B♭ |
Quarter Note = |
|
222 |
Time: |
|
3:17 |
|
5 ½ CHORUSES + 5-Bar Tag: |
|
[ Recording starts in mid-chorus ] |
|
• |
16 bars ens improv |
(CC riffs) |
|
• |
8 bars trumpet |
(CC arpeggios) |
|
• |
8 bars ens improv |
(CC riffs) |
|
|
2 bars trumpet |
(unaccompanied) |
|
|
3 bars drums |
(unaccompanied) |
|
Jam Session Recorded by JERRY
NEWMAN |
Composed by: |
George Gershwin
(lyrics by Ira Gershwin) |
C&A:
The tempo is not much faster than the previous version of I Got
Rhythm from a year and a half earlier at the Minneapolis after-hours
club but it seems a lot faster. It sounds rushed. This is definitely not the
regular rhythm section normally playing at Minton’s – the pianist is neither
Kersey nor Monk and the drummer is more heavy-handed than the superb Klook.
Jerry Newman doesn’t get his recorder going until Charlie Christian is
already in full flight going into the bridge. We’ll never know where he
started; he goes full bore without stop through three chord changes with
only a slight pause into the next chord (F7). Charles then goes into a
B♭6
with a ♭3 on the second half of the
F7 leading into some familiar phrases
and figures.
Unfortunately, all this time the drummer has been boorishly banging on the
rim on the upbeat of every other fourth beat totally obscuring any musical
note being played at the time. Charles appears to be coasting between
his two choruses, but it seems to me that he is trying to bring some life to
the rhythm of the piece by going into a drumming mode.
There’s one unique occurrence on the bridge of the second chorus: Charles
extends the G7 all the way through the entire two measures of the
C7
section. After the torrid second-chorus bridge, Charles throws in that same little
figure from the 8th bar and then coasts a bit with some riffs going into his
third solo chorus.
Another surprise: The first four bars of Charles’ third chorus is a quote of
the first four measures of German composer Leon Jessel’s jaunty,
turn-of-the-century character piece The Parade of the Tin Soldiers (aka The
Parade of the Wooden Soldiers). He then immediately goes into a long funky
line that is at once smooth and choppy, melodic and discordant.
At this point, though, the drums have gotten loudly more intrusive, the
crowd more boisterous and the horns wilder; Charles holds off for a bit,
taps out a few notes, four or five measures later he starts off again,
gradually.
On the bridge of his third chorus, CC first does a familiar
down-and-up-the-staircase thing, grumbles around the lower frets on the
G7 –
familiar notes but very unfamiliarly arranged; then swings on out briefly on
the C7 before an abrupt chord transition takes him back towards the nut for
the mostly familiar F7. Not a very exotic bridge but interesting enough and
swinging all the way.
Now comes his other up-and-down-the-stairs routine. Same concept as on the
previous one which emphasized the strong beat of a dominant (bar 17) but
this one (mm 26-27) is on the upbeat of the major chord and played straight
(scant syncopation). Unusual to hear them so close together on the same
chorus. That’s followed straight away by a nicely placed diminished run,
then out to give way to two+ (a recording glitch inserts an extra measure
following CC’s solo) trumpet choruses preceding the finale.
The lamentable din and clamor of both the paying crowd and the playing crowd
on the last chorus somewhat impairs the accuracy in the transcript of
Charles’ riffing so a definite caveat is suggested here. Rely more on your
own auditory faculties on this chorus. Also, keep in mind that the mastering
of the different releases varies quite a bit with some having their own
unique frequency equalization and wide range of audio “enhancement”
processing. It’s especially prevalent on this type of field recording.
Playback apps also tend to contribute their own peculiarities, so one also
has to be selective with that. Or…ignore this last-chorus page.
After all that, the incessant drummer tops it off with the last word on the
tag. Maybe the audio issues were mainly due to Newman’s mike just
being too close to the drum kit.
|
nb: The riff heard right after the bridge on the last chorus was first used
by Mary Lou Williams in her 1936 composition and arrangement of Walkin’ and Swingin’ with Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy.
Thelonious Monk later developed the phrase into Rhythm-a-ning. |
|
[10] |
Esoteric |
ESJ-4 |
(side B, track 4) |
|
|
Vogue |
LD 158 |
(side B, track 4) |
|
[LP] |
Musica Jazz |
2MJP 1058 |
(side B, track 6) |
|
|
Vogue |
500114 |
(side B, track 2) |
|
|
Xanadu |
107 |
(side A, track 2) |
|
|
Xanadu |
JX. 6619 |
(side A, track 2) |
|
[CD] |
Century |
CECC 00376 |
(track 4) |
|
|
Definitive |
DRCD11177 |
(disc 4, track 9) |
|
|
Fantasy / Esoteric |
OJCCD-1932-2 |
(track 4) |
|
|
JSP |
JSP909 |
(disc 4, track 9) |
|
|
Masters of Jazz |
MJCD 75 |
(track 13) |
|
|
Music Memoria |
87998 2 |
(disc 2, track 15) |
|
|
Primo / Proper |
PRMCD 6092 |
(disc 2, track 18) |
|
|
Proper |
PROPERBOX 98 |
(disc 4, track 15) |
|
|
Venus |
TKCZ-36013 |
(track 4) |
|
|
Venus |
TKCZ-79502 |
(track 4) |
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