As Herbie explains in the Nat Hentoff quotation, A Jump Ahead does not have a conventional melody or theme.
Instead, the tune gets its structure from a four-bar ostinato played by bassist Paul Chambers.
An ostinato is a short melody pattern that is constantly repeated in the same part at the same pitch.
According to Nat Hentoff’s notes:
“The rule which Hancock set for A Jump Ahead was for Paul Chambers to select an introductory four-bar pedal tone. ‘Then there come sixteen bars of time,’ Hancock points out, ‘in which what I improvise is based on the pedal tone Paul played during the first four bars. Another four-bar break follows, for which Paul selects another note. I never knew what Paul would play, and that's how this one got titled. He was always a jump ahead. Incidentally, since any one note can be related to all twelve tones on the keyboard, I had complete freedom to utilize Paul's pedal notes any way I wanted to. Those notes acted as a note in a chord, but I formed the chords in my own way. Again, there was no preconceived melody, and the harmony came from the notes Paul chose.’”
Structurally, A Jump Ahead is what may be referred to as tonal music.
And in tonal music, a pedal tone is a sustained tone, played typically in the bass. Sometimes also called a pedal point, a pedal point is a non-chord tone.
The term “pedal tone” comes from the organ’s ability to sustain a note indefinitely using the pedal keyboard which is played by the feet; as such, the organist can hold down a pedal point for lengthy periods while both hands perform higher-register music on the manual keyboards.
In effect, Chambers acts like the organ pedal keyboard while Herbie plays over it using both hands on the piano keyboard.
One other point that may be of interest is Willie Bobo’s use very thick/heavy drumsticks that really serve to crackle & pop the snare drum and crash the cymbals. He generates tremendous swing on this six-and-a-half minute cut.
Paul’s four-bar ostinato can be heard at the outset, again at 18 second, and again at 35 and 53 seconds and so on.
Each time it is followed by a 16-bar improvisation that Herbie conceives based on the pedal tone that Paul selects.
In effect, A Jump Ahead is akin to the geometric head-start in which one never catches-up.
To my ears, Herbie’s solo really hits its stride on A Jump Ahead at around the 2:41 mark and just soars thereafter.
See what you think.
