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A Night in Tunisia - Dizzy Gilespe

A Night in Tunisia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A Night in Tunisia" is a musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli in 1942 while Gillespie was playing with the Earl Hines Band. It has become a jazz standard.

It is also known as "Interlude",^[2] under which title it was recorded (with lyrics) by Sarah Vaughan (from the EP "Hot Jazz", 1953) andAnita O'Day. Gillespie himself called the tune "Night in Tunisia", although the song is usually titled "A Night in Tunisia". It appears as the title track of 30 CDs and is included in over 500 currently available CDs. In January 2004, The Recording Academy added the Dizzy Gillespie & his Sextet’s 1946 Victor recording to its Grammy Hall of Fame.

"Night in Tunisia" was one of the signature pieces of Gillespie's bebop big band, and he also played it with his small groups.

Analysis[edit]

The complex bass line in the "A section" is notable for avoiding the standard walking bass pattern of straight quarter notes, and the use of oscillating half-step-up/half-step-down chord changes (using the Sub V) gives the song a unique, mysterious feeling. The B section is notable for having an unresolved minor II-V, as the V chord leads back into the Sub V of the A section. Like many of Gillespie's tunes, it features a short written introduction and a brief interlude that occurs between solo sections — in this case, a twelve-bar sequence leading into a four-bar break for the next soloist.

Cover versions and adaptations[edit]

One of its most famous performances is Charlie Parker's recording for Dial. (Dial even released a fragmentary take of it simply titled "The Famous Alto Break". See Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial Sessions for more info.) The tune also became closely identified with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, who often gave showstopping performances of it with extra percussion from the entire horn section. On the album A Night at Birdland Vol. 1, Blakey introduces the piece with the story of how he was present when Dizzy composed it "on the bottom of a garbage can." The liner notes say, "The Texas department of sanitation can take a low bow."

It has been covered in various styles by various artists, including:

Count Basie Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1957 and1960 Anthony Braxton Clifford Brown Rusty Bryant Don Byas June Christy Miles Davis Yusef Lateef Ibrahim Maalouf Stefano di Battista Paquito D'Rivera[3] Maynard Ferguson Ella Fitzgerald

The Slackers Stan Getz Dexter Gordon Kids These Days Bobby McFerrin with The Manhattan Transferfeaturing Joe Williams Lambert, Hendricks & Ross The Modern Jazz Quartet Charlie Parker PE'Z Bud Powell Nelson Rangell Sonny Rollins Poncho Sanchez Les Double Six in 1962

Arturo Sandoval Jimmy Smith Supersax Cal Tjader The Toasters Lennie Tristano The Turtle Island String Quartet Frank Vignola Victor Wooten Big Sugar Sylvain Luc Tuxedo Junction Roland Dyens Snowboy and the Latin Section

Chaka Khan included a version of the tune (with a guest appearance by Gillespie himself as well as an electronically altered sample of Parker's "The Famous Alto Break") onWhat Cha' Gonna Do for Me.

The song was a part of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps' show in 1997.

In 2013, the song was featured prominently in the TNT mini-series "Mob City," sung by a female vocalist during an extended nightclub scene.

Bass vamp underpinning the A sections of A Night in Tunisia.

Spain Chick Corea

Spain

From Wikipedia:

Spain is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is probably Corea's most prominent piece, and some would consider it a modernjazz standard.

Spain was composed in 1971 and appeared in its original (and most well-known) rendition on the album Light as a Feather, with performances by Corea (Rhodes electric piano),Airto Moreira (drums), Flora Purim (vocals and percussion), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Joe Farrell (flute). It has been recorded in several versions, by Corea himself as well as by other artists, including a flamenco version by Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin in the 1980s, and a progressive bluegrass version by Bela Fleck in 1979. More recently, Corea has performed it as a duo with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara.

In 1996, Greek-Cypriot singer, Alexia Vassiliou recorded "Spain" with Chick Corea, in her Sony BMG Jazz Album, 'Alexia - In a Jazz Mood'.

The Light as a Feather version of Spain received two Grammy nominations, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Group. In 2001, Corea was awarded the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for "Spain for Sextet and Orchestra".

Composition

Corea opens the Light as a Feather version of Spain with the adagio from Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. After the intro, the song switches to a fast, steady samba-like rhythm, in which the main theme and an improvisation part are repeated.

The chord progression used during the improvisation part is based on harmonic progressions in Rodrigo's concerto. It runs as follows:

 Gmaj7 F#7 Em7 A7 Dmaj7 (Gmaj7) C#7 F#7 Bm B7

In line with jazz philosophy, other interpretations of the song are structured differently and some might only retain the main theme or parts of it. In the Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin version some chords are altered in parts, including the F#7 to F#7b9 or F#7aug and C#7 to C#7#9.

Appearances

• Light as a Feather (1972) - Chick Corea and Return to Forever
• Akoustic Band (1989) - Chick Corea w. Akoustic Band
• Play (1990) - Chick Corea w. Bobby McFerrin
• Return to the Seventh Galaxy: The Anthology (CD 1996) - Chick Corea w. Bill Connors, Stanley Clarke & Lenny White
• Alexia In a Jazz Mood (CD 1996) - Alexia Vassiliou feat. Chick Corea
• Solo Piano: Originals (CD 2000) - Chick Corea solo
• Corea.Concerto (2001) - Chick Corea w. Origin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Rendezvous in New York (CD 2003, DVD 2005) - Chick Corea w. Akoustic Band (DVD only), and w/ Bobby McFerrin and Bela Fleck (DVD only), and w/ Gonzalo Rubalcaba(CD/DVD)
• Elektric Band: Live at Montreux 2004 (2004) - Chick Corea w. Elektric Band
• Akoustic Band 1991 (DVD 2005) - Chick Corea w. Akoustic Band
• Duet (2009) - Chick Corea & Hiromi Uehara

Various covers by other artists, including:

• Manhattan Wildlife Refuge (1974) - Bill Watrous
• Live and Improvised (1976) - Blood Sweat & Tears
• Something You Got (1977) - Art Farmer
• Crossing the Tracks (1979) - Bela Fleck
• This Time (1980) - Al Jarreau
• Live With Vic Juris (1985) - Bireli Lagrene
• Jaco Pastorius & Bireli Lagrene & Alex Bally (1985) - Bireli Lagrene & Jaco Pastorius of jazzpoint records
• New Weave (1986) - Rare Silk
• Sensacion (1987) - Tito Puente
• Daybreak (1987) - Bela Fleck
• Thousand Wave (1988) - Takahiro Matsumoto
• GRP All-Star Big Band (1992) - GRP All-Star Big Band
• Rosenberg Trio: Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival (1993) - Rosenberg Trio
• Zlatko (1995) - Zlatko Manojlović
• DGQ-20 (1996) - David Grisman Quintet
• Two Guitars One Passion (1996) - Lara & Reyes
• Tango del Fuego (1999) - James Galway
• Czechmate (1999) - Druha Trava
• Spain (2000) - Michel Camilo & Tomatito
• La Nuit Des Gitans (2001) - Raphael Fays
• Cross Current (2005) - Jake Shimabukuro
• Gently Weeps (2006) - Jake Shimabukuro
• Steps (2009) - Cluster
• Keropak (2010) - Ayaka Hirahara
• Live at Last (2008) - Stevie Wonder
• Acoustic live (2009) - Pegasus (Issei Noro & Tetsuo Sakurai)
• Joe Robinson and Slava Grigoryan for Hey Hey It's Saturday in 2009
• The Story So Far (2011) - Sarah Ellen Hughes and Sector7
• Spanish Suite (Concierto de Aranjuez - Spain) (2014) - Chick Corea, Eric Owens, Terence Blanchard & The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra

Abraham Laboriel

The Professors of the Cornel School of Contemporary Music got together and performed their take of “The Chicken”. The group includes Abraham Laboriel on bass, Jimmy Branly on drums, Otmaro Ruiz on keys and Allen Hinds on guitar.

Many people think Jaco Pastorius wrote this tune, but it was actually composed by Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, who arranged and co-wrote music with James Brown and others.

The Chicken:

From http://www.notreble.com/


Rio Funk, with Lee Ritenour"

Estudando o básico - necessário

Free Bass Transcription: “So What” Bass Line by Paul Chambers

This week’s transcription is the 9+ minute opening track on the best selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis 1959 Kind of Blue, titled “So What.”

A few pointers for the transcription – on the famous bass intro, in measure 16, 24, etc. (similar measures), Mr. P.C. plays something around a quarter tone above E.  It’s not precisely an E, nor F, but in between.  I’ve listened to several different recordings of the song where Paul plays in this manner.  I like this “messier” approach in contrast to recordings today where most instruments tend to play everything clean and clear.  It’s not that I like one more than the other per se; but I take away something important from the bass intro: the feel and groove is as important as the notes!

Interesting side note: on many other live versions of Chambers playing with Miles post-studio (i.e. Zurich, the Olympia, Stockholm, etc.), the song is much, much faster, like 250+ bpm, with Paul still churning out the bass intro note for note, along with 10 minutes of walking bass!

Somethine else I noticed that I hadn’t before… he strongly outlines a Db major on the “B” section rather than Eb dorian.  For those who know your theory, this all makes perfect sense, as Eb dorian is what you get when you play the Db major scale starting on the 2nd degree.  BUT.  It’s one thing to know theory, and it’s another to play it effectively… and also to the band leader’s liking (whose preferences can change wildly from person to person).  Both Evan’s (piano) and Miles (trumpet) strongly support the Db major in their playing as well.

I’m hoping to offer this in a PDF so people don’t have to download 7 pages; may be another day or two before that happens.  Happy playing!

[Edit: Here’s the PDF for people who want the whole thing in one shot.]

[Update: a sharp reader, Pete, noticed that there’s a repeat measure at 199.  The measures are correct in the original Finale file, but for some reason the error occurs when exporting to jpg.  Can’t seem to get it fixed, so for now, be aware that the error is there!]