LISTEN AND LEARN BOYS AND GIRLS. BRUBECK AND DESMOND

Balcony Rock 1954. This is the original version, 12 minutes. The other YouTube live video is much later and does not do it justice. Why not listen to it first, and then read the notes and listen again? It may surprise you.

In the early 50's they achieved fame by going on tour with Colleges and Universities. This was in their early prime.

Listen to Paul Desmond's use of displaced patterns on alto - no one does it as well as Desmond. This was a characteristic of his playing throughout his life. His solos are all full of varied repeated rhythmic phrases. Comping is very quiet behind his solo.

Hear also his dynamics, loud and soft, this is the beginning of Cool jazz

Brubeck then solos with a totally different feel, a lot of block chords.
He was recovering from an surfing accident in 1951 that left him playing single notes with great pain. But look at what he makes of his very limited capabilities. It holds the attention throughout. At one time he is playing with just a single finger. At the end they just play single bar exchanges, question and answer playing out the song for the last 16 bars.

The audience loves it, agree?

John

JAZZ SMUGGLERS TO PLAY AT 9 FESTIVAL OF CHICHESTER EVENTS

The Jazz Smugglers band

The Jazz Smugglers workshop

Start your own jazz band - don't

How to promote your gigs



In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.
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