What is this booklet about?

The ability to play in so-called odd times has become an essential line on most

young jazz musicians CVs over the last decade. Improvising in an uneven structure,

as opposed to the 4/4 and that are rooted in jazzs history as dance music, is a

challenge that is at first confounding, but with time, like any great puzzle,

compelling.

However, whilst more and more musicians learn the structures and intricacies

of odd times, the background, history and aesthetics of their usage remains a hazy

subject; why, if at all, is it fun to play a standard in 7/4? We all know that there is

more to music with uneven structures than simply the kudos of being able to do it,

but what is it, specifically in a jazz context, that makes it work?

The Brad Mehldau Trios 1999 recording of the classic standard All The

Things You Are is perhaps the best known of all odd-time recordings of standards .

It is a recording full of the energy and joy of discovery, the band revelling in

discovering their new rhythmic landscape It is, at heart, jazz, played by jazz

musicians for whom improvisation is everything.

However, with the introduction of the 7/4 time signature it has put one foot on

the path that leads eventually to the musics of Africa, India, and the Balkans.

Stationed at various points along this path are countless different approches, some

closer to jazz, some almost entirely groove and cycle based with only a little

improvisation built in. It is important to realise, then, that introducing odd times in

jazz is not simply a matter of chopping off the odd beat here and there in order to

make it more difficult, but introducing a foreign element which has been well-

established (and is certainly not odd) in musical cultures the world over for

centuries.

Although it is focused on the implications of one particular recording, the

methods and values used in this booklet are relevant to any situation where we, as

musicians brought up on Western music and the American jazz tradition, are taken

out of our comfort zone. There are no shortcuts, but using the transcription,

analysis and exercises has been my way into an alien language, and still remains the

way I try to learn to play in new rhythmic environments.

How should I use it?

The transcription itself is as complete a transcription as you will find of this

music, and you can use it as you would any transcription; learning to sing, play,

internalise and capture as much of the detail and nuance of the playing as possible.

However, it is important to realise that there are two ways of using a transcription;

firstly, to lift language (harmonic ideas, licks etc), and, secondly, to understand the

processes that are happening in the music. It is the second of these approaches that

this booklet is focused on. A page of notes can never represent or capture a live,

improvised performance, and simply learning to play the transcription by itself,

however faithfully, is not the end of the process. It is the impulses behind the surface

that give us the tools to move on and make our own music.

Chapter 1 The Basics deals with the structure of the basic 7/4 clave

pattern, ways to learn it, internalise and play very much inside it. It is the reference

point for everything that follows. Chapter 2 Rhythmic Language and the Jazz

Influence deals with more complex rhythmic patterns, anticipation and odd note

groupings. Chapter 3 Layers of Time deals with the most advanced rhythmic

layers that are built up, and ways to feel, practice and execute ideas that use them.

Lastly, it is worth saying that the point of this booklet is not necessarily to

learn how to sound like Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier or Jorge Rossy (although

should you wish to do this it might help). Rather I have tried to use their playing as a

way into a rhythmic concept that, whilst becoming ever more popular for

improvising jazz musicians today, is not well-represented (yet) in jazz literature and

study.

The Transcription

The recording used is All The Things You Are from the Brad Mehldau Trios

1997 CD The Art of the Trio Vol. 4 Live At The Village Vanguard (Warner Bros.). The

transcription starts from the piano solo, at 425, and runs until the end of the solo.

Notation

i) Drums

1. Ride Cymbal

2. Hi Hat (stick)

3. Hi Hat (stick, open)

4. Hi Hat (stick, closed)

5. Crash

6. Snare rim

7. Med/High Tom

8. High Tom

9. Hi Hat (pedal)

10. Bass Drum

11. Floor Tom

12. Low Tom

13. Snare

!

9

1

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10

2

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"

11

3

#"

$

12

4

"

%

#

13

5

"#

6

"7

#8

#

Accentuation patterns for the ride cymbal follow the clave (see chapter 1)

unless otherwise specified. For example,

is:

rather than:

ii Piano

Piano notation is straightforward apart from the passages in the last two choruses

that are marked Out Of Time. These are impossible to transcribe accurately to get

the timing right refer to the CD.

Dr. !" " "

#" "

#" "

#" "

#

Dr. !"# " "#

$" "

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Dr. !"# " "

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$

1. Basics The Clave

Although we can express the time signature as 7/4, much as we express a

waltz as 3/4 or a march as 4/4, learning to play in 7/4 is not a matter of learning to

count to 7 in every bar. The likelihood is that, if you have heard this recording or

have played in 7/4 before, the following pattern will be familiar to you:

This pattern is the key to everything that happens here, much more so than the

time signature itself; 7/4 is just the size of the box happens to fit into. At this point,

we need to understand what the clave is actually made up of, and why it works. Far

from being an arbitrary pattern, is has a great sense of logic that is founded on a

principle found particularly in the music of the Balkans; the long beat. This is a beat

that is longer by a factor of 3:2 than a standard (or short) beat. So, by dividing the

minims, we actually get:

Short + Short + Short + Short + Long + Long

The underlines here represent the weighted beats1. Far from being odd, when

looking at the pattern this way we can actually see the pattern can be interpreted as

having 6 beats, with 4 strong beats. It is instinctive for us to divide things into even

numbers (think of dividing into 2 dotted crotchets in a jazz waltz) and 7/4 is no

different.

1 Whether the last long beat is less accented than the preceding one, but undoubtedly stronger than the second and fourth beats.

Here are some examples of the clave and its fundamental role in tying the

ensemble together: (as you listen to the recording, tap the clave rather than

counting to 7 to keep your place).

(Bar 27-31 : 505)

This example is the bridge of the tune, with bar 28 being the turnaround back

into the A section. See how strongly piano and bass come together on the two

dotted crotchets from the clave at the end of bar 28 to mark the end of the section,

where neither has been marking out the clave particularly strongly in the previous 3

bars.

The bass is evidently very firmly rooted in the clave, but each band member

uses it to keep feet on the ground when more complex rhythmic layers are being

27

Pno.

Bass

Dr.

!!"""

Bm7

#$ #% # #% #E7

#$ #$ #&% #$

A^

# #% # # #% #% #&$ #% #% #$ #$ #% #% ' #$( ' #$()""" * *)""" +%

Bm7 #% # +E7 # +% A^ #% # # #$ #

, #-

.-

.-/0 -

1-0 -

.-0 -

' #( .-0 - -# 1

-0 - "1- -0 -

'-0#(

29

Pno.

Bass

Dr.

!!"""

Gm7

#$ #% # #% &C7

'F^

#$ (# # #% #% # )C7*""" ) ##$% "" ##+ , ' ,

##%% ##- "" ##- ""

*""" #%Gm7 #$ # # #%

C7 # # #% F^ # # # # "C7 # "

. /0( 0# 0# 0(#+ #+ / # "

0 0 0 0# " )

0 0 0 0 0 0 0,#" # # ,

built. See this example, where the piano is playing unusual groupings across the

beat:

(Bars 161-162 : 824)

With the bass walking, Rossy clearly marks out the strong beats of the clave on

the ride cymbal, adding bass drum kicks on each of the two long beats (beat 5 in

bar 161 and beat 6.5 in bar 162).

It is clear that the clave pattern is what the trio use as resolution; it is the

strongest rhythmic element in the music, and is the foundation on which everything

is built. We have to learn it not only as a pattern, but as a rock-solid, internalised

structure that requires no thinking or measuring.

Excercises

To be comfortable with the clave, we have to get comfortable with the idea of

short and long beats (crotchets and dotted crotchets). Our ability to internalise the

clave depends on our internal clocks being able to deal with these two lengths

accurately and relatively, not only in the configuration of 7/4.

The short beat, or crotchet, is always the primary beat. This means that we

dont begin by tapping the dotted cr