One of the most appreciated clarinettists in the
world performs one of Benny Goodman's favourites. The track is in fact
taken from the album "Benny Rides
Again" in collaboration with Gary Burton as a keen homage to
Benny Goodman and Lionel
Hampton.
Concepts and ideas on regard of transcribing solos and singing are
mentioned in the lecture about Woody Herman's solo.
You'll find listed below some considerations about this solo for
advanced players:
- The key the composition is performed is different from the one you may
find in some Real Books: it's in "D" in spite of "C".
- Note how the use of the "glissato" is definitely absent (see Herman's solo about it)
and replaced, in case, by the chromatic scale.
- For most of its extension the solo stays within the octave and a half
hardly going under the "B" on the third line. This is one of the main issues
encountered on clarinet solos on up-tempos or in situations where the
instrument is somehow "weakened" by the volume of the other players (e.g. in
big bands). Therefore the chance to explore and value the dark sounds is
limited forcing the player to a brighter and louder part of the clarinet which
turns out to be, in the long run, a bit monotonous.
- The chord sequence of this track is a kind of "rhythm change" in the "A
Section" where "D" is mainly meant as "D7", and then the original chords are
played on the "B Section".
- Daniels' approach to the solo is mainly diatonic except for the
"B section" of the first chorus where he uses chromatic passages and for
bars 9-12 where the chords | D7b9 Ebmaj | G7 | Cmin7 Gmaj7 | D D7 |
are superimposed by the melodicist (see D. Liebman's book to find out more about
this kind of approach to jazz improvisation).
- Note how he begins and ends the solo using the pentatonic scale on the
main key.
- Note how he plays the "F" mixolidian scale at the end of the first eight
bars which ends up on the b9 of the chord in bar n.9 (D7).
- Note how he "sticks" on the diminished arpeggio in bars 17-19.
- Note how he emphasizes the minor third (blue note) during the last eight
bars of the first chorus.
- Bars 33-36 may be meant as | D | Cmin7 | E7 A7|.
- He emphasizes even more the Blues Scale in bars 45-48.
- Again extremely stuck on the diminished arpeggio in bars 49-51.
- Note how he emphasizes the major seventh on the dim7 chords in bars
52-57.
NB: The score is meant to be for "Bb" instruments.
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INDICE LEZIONI
