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This feature is a continuation of The Rhythm Section Part 1 Drums and Part 2 Bass and Guitar which in its completed form is Chapter 3 of Jerry Coker’s excellent book.that is focused on enhancing your appreciation of the music.
Jerry Coker, himself a teacher, composer/arranger, and noted saxophonist, has written How To Listen To Jazz to fill the need for a layman's guide to understanding improvisation and its importance in the development of this artistically rich yet complex music form. Without relying on overly technical language or terms, Jerry Coker Shows how you can become a knowledgeable jazz listener - whether you are an aspiring musician, student, jazz aficionado, or new listener.
PIANO
"Jazz piano has a very interesting history. Early jazz was heavily-dominated by pianists, and some of the jazz vehicles, like ragtime and boogie-woogie, were expressly developed for and by pianists. Many of the early bandleaders and arrangers were pianists. This trend continued through the thirties, when other instruments like saxophone and trumpet were on the rise, ascending to dominance in the forties and remaining dominant over piano during the fifties and sixties. But in the seventies the pianists are again dominant, led by players like McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Joe Zawinul, all of whom are bandleaders, composers, and arrangers for major groups.
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton was one of the first well-known jazz pianists. Morton played as a solo pianist sometimes, and at other times in a trio (adding drums and clarinet); he also led the famous Red Hot Peppers Orchestra. Morton exhibited fine control of the keyboard, one aspect of that control enabling him to slow the tempo momentarily in his right hand, while maintaining an even pulse in the left hand, a feat demonstrated by Frederic Chopin in classical music. Morton claimed to have invented jazz. This is doubtful, but it is certainly true that his playing, his compositions and arrangements (which were extremely clever), and his leadership were valuable contributions to the development of early jazz.
James P. Johnson is sometimes referred to as the father of jazz piano for a variety of reasons. His recording of "Carolina Shout" was made in 1921, making it one of the earliest jazz recordings. His long career took him through several changes of style. For example, his early style was loosely based on ragtime, which he learned from listening to piano rolls and watching the motion of the piano keys. [Many piano rolls were made by pianist-composer of rags Scott Joplin. Joplin's music is known to many people today as a result of its exposure in the successful motion picture "The Sting." Also, composer-author Gunther Schuller's ragtime chamber orchestra, organized at the New England Conservatory in 1973, has featured many Joplin rags in numerous television appearances.]
By the late thirties, Johnson had adopted both the swing and the boogie-woogie styles. Boogie woogie was based on the chord progression to the twelve-measure blues form. It was described as being "eight to the bar" because the left hand (carrying the pulse and the background) usually played eight notes in every measure. Boogie woogie took the nation by storm. It was an exhilarating pulse for dancing because of the push of the double-time feeling, and it was an achievable feat of coordination for amateur or "parlor" pianists. Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Albeit Ammons also significantly popularized the boogie-woogie piano style.
Johnson's personal style, within any of the general stylistic changes he passed through, was always more modern than that played or other pianists within the same style. One of his early recordings bore the symbolic title, "You've Gotta Be Modernistic." Johnson was equipped with excellent piano technique, and his improvisations were filled with unexpected, clever, and modern elements, such as rich, extended chordal sounds and sudden but temporary change; of key in the middle of phrases.
Fats Waller was another influential pianist of the twenties and thirties. His humorous, rollicking style was captured not only on a number of recordings but also in printed piano arrangements that featured his many original tunes. Waller was extremely popular, particularly as a singer of clever songs, insuring that his gift would be noticed.[Two songs exemplifying the Waller wit are "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long" and "Your Feet's Too Big." At the end of "Feet's Toe Big" Fats indignantly asserts, "Your pedal extremities are obnoxious!"]
Earl "Fatha" Hines was also active in the twenties, backing up famous singers on record, playing with luminaries like Louis Armstrong, and writing successful songs. Hines' career, like Johnson's, was long, still active in the seventies. Hines is credited with influencing a number of later pianists like Stan Kenton and Nat "King" Cole. (Many people today are unaware of the fact that Cole, in addition to singing, was a major jazz pianist, winning jazz polls in the early forties.) Hines also led some star-studded orchestras, one of which featured the then young Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker later to become leaders of the bebop style.
Duke Ellington was also well known as a composer and bandleader of the first magnitude but it is seldom realized by jazz buffs that he was also a major pianist throughout his more than fifty years as an active player. He was already a well-known pianist in the twenties, and in the sixties he cut an album called "Money Jungle" with Charles Mingus (bass) and Max Roach (drums) that attested to his continuing ability to remain an authoritative performer in a perpetually blossoming state.
Perhaps the greatest jazz pianist of all time, both in terms of ability and influence, was the remarkable Art Tatum, who recorded profusely for more than two decades (early thirties to middle fifties), turning out dazzling performances on hundreds of standard tunes. To describe his technique as "awesome" is somehow too mild a description. Even great classical pianists like Vladimir Horowitz praised and appreciated Tatum's absolute mastery of the keyboard. His harmonies were at least a couple of decades ahead of the times, and his pulse-feeling was flawless. If Tatum had a weakness, it was his lack of original, creative melody in his improvisations. For all that phenomenal technique, he seldom played an improvised melody of any degree of potency or lasting value. Nevertheless, great pianists like Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Clare Fischer, Hampton Hawes, and many others were inspired by the Tatum example. Tatum's best recordings are those in which he plays alone, as he liked to squeeze extra chords into the progression or invent breaks in an unplanned, spontaneous manner, which would have been curtailed by other instruments.
Teddy Wilson, chiefly through his work with Benny Goodman's trio and quartet, was highly regarded by jazz audiences and widely imitated by pianists of the thirties and early forties.
In the Bebop Era of the forties, the major pianists were Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell (both of whom had roots in Tatum) and Thelonious Monk. Peterson's style could be described as neo-Tatum. Powell, less emphatically influenced by Tatum, developed an original sort of left-hand style and improvised searing melodies that were very similar to the kind played by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. Up to the time of Parker, most instrumentalists had been influenced only by players who played the same instrument, but the Parker era ended that.
Thelonious Monk was a jazz musician who played and composed as an individual, seemingly unconcerned with the opinion of others about his highly unorthodox style. His touch (the way in which his fingers depressed the keys) often sounded blatantly hammered out, as one might play "Chopsticks." His melodies were angular, rhythmically disjunct, full of notes that surprise the ear; and his chord notes frequently were so clustered together as to simulate a new version of "Kitten on the Keys." Nevertheless, he was a creative genius with a deep understanding of developing melodies in the manner of variations. The beautiful jazz ballad "Round Midnight," now a standard part of the repertoire of most jazz performers, was composed by Monk. Other Monk tunes that are widely played are "Straight, No Chaser," "Monk's Mood," "Epistrophy," "Bye-Ya," and "Ruby, My Dear." Monk was a musician without precedent, and a few pianists have successfully adopted his style, though musicians of all instruments have been influenced by Monk's output.
Some of the well-known pianists of the fifties are Horace Silver (originally with Stan Getz, still leading his own group in the seventies), Erroll Garner, Wynton Kelly (with Miles Davis), and Red Garland (also with Miles Davis). Garner and Garland form the first two links in a chain that revolutionized the modern-day pianists' left-hand chording style as well as influencing some aspects of the right hand.
In the late fifties and early sixties, the jazz world was blessed with the arrival of many superb pianists, including the major pianists as of this writing [1978/1990]: McCoy Tyner (with John Coltrane), Bill Evans (originally with Miles Davis), Herbie Hancock (originally with Miles Davis, also), Keith Jarrett (originally with Charles Lloyd), and Chick Corea (with Miles Davis). Their careers are far from over, excepting Evans, so that we needn't place them historically or pinpoint their styles and their contributions at this time.
It is worth mentioning here that many of the modern pianists are availing themselves of electric pianos, electronic gadgetry, and also electronic synthesizers. The addition of such instruments has added greatly to the repertoire of tone colors available.
The discussion of the rhythm section has not included all the names worth mentioning, nor has it included performers who play less-common instruments of the rhythm section, like Gary Burton (vibraphones) or Jimmy Smith (organ). But their importance to the jazz scene is not so much their accompmental capacities, as members of a rhythm section, but as soloists of exceptional ability.
FUNCTIONS OF THE RHYTHM SECTION
It was mentioned earlier that it would be absurd to call the Oscar Peterson Trio or the Bill Evans Trio a rhythm section, though the trios are made up of piano, bass, and drums, because they function as a complete group, not as a rhythm section waiting for the arrival of the horn players. But when those instruments are embellished by horns, then at least part of this function is to accompany and inspire the horn soloists. Individually, each member of the rhythm section is responsible for something that should be provided consistently.
The drummer is responsible for time-keeping figures that will vary only slightly through the performance. The bassist provides a bass line and supports the pulse, along with the drummer, by playing mostly steady quarter notes (one note per beat). The pianist or guitarist will supply the chord progression, supported by the bass line. The members of the rhythm section are individually and collectively responsible for responding to the rhythms and melodies of the soloist, which means that the drummer will play additional rhythms that are not part of the time-keeping figures, the bassist will occasionally alter his steady quarter-note approach, and the pianist or guitarist will improvise the rhythms with which they attack the chords, all in response to the soloist's needs for support.
Responding does not necessarily mean to echo or imitate what the soloist has just played. It can also mean to fill open space left by the soloist between phrases or while he pauses to breathe or while he contemplates the next phrase. In other cases, the so-called response is actually an inspiring suggestion made to the soloist by the rhythm section or an individual in the section.
Collectively, it is very important that the rhythm section maintain a steady, unified pulse, retain good balance, keep place in the chord progression, guard the form of the tune, feel improvised introductions and endings (very common) together, raise intensity levels where needed, and anticipate opportunities to play rhythmic figures together in their improvised accompaniment.
The function of the pianist and that of the guitarist are, for all practical purposes, identical. Therefore, it is common to see rhythm sections which use either piano or guitar, but not both instruments, as they will collide as two drummers or bassists would, unless their functions, by prior agreement, are sufficiently different that they do not collide. Count Basie (pianist) solved the problem in his band by having his guitarist (Freddy Green) strum in steady quarter-note valued chords, while Basie used a very sparse left hand and played light, semi-melodic figures in the right hand. Miles Davis' group solved the problem in the album "In A Silent Way" (Columbia CS-9875), which uses two electric pianos, and organ, and a guitar in the rhythm section, by approaching their improvised accompaniment not so much by chording in the conventional ways but by playing colorful sounds in different registers on instruments of different timbre (tone quality).”
Great info from Mr. Coker.Great post,Steven.
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