December 15, 1975 Number 50

Jazz, 1 bclicvc, is America’s greatest cadenzas were never transcribed. They are contribution to the arts. It is a distinct lost forever, like too much of classic jazz. genre in music, and has its roots in the For the very substance of jazz is ex- blues and gospel rhythms of Black tempore elaboration and variation. It is Americans. in the past seventy-five years, improvised composition. Duke Ellington however, despite the enormous outpour- composed more than 1000 pieces of ing of jazz and its worldwide popularity, music, but the sheet music for most of his the amount of material available in tran- compositions shouldn’ t be expected to scribed form--that is, in written musical give much of what Ellington actually play- notation--has been pitifully small. It is a ed when he himself performed and impro- tragedy that documentation of American vised on his own themes. Sometimes jazz is almost completely nonexistent. scores were written out as an aid in tim- Suppose some catastrophe were to des- ing recording sessions, but most disap- troy evcty jazz recording ever made. Wc peared soon after the sessions were com- could do very little to recreate the music, pleted. Compared with what has been and much great art would die with our composed and played, the small collec- fading memory of it. The small group of tion of popular jazz scores that has living jazz artists could reproduce only a been published rcprcscnts Iittlc of the fraction of what would bc lost, because jazz we hear and know. It is the bate the improvisations of the great jazz artists bones. have been neither memorized nor syste- 1 became interested in jazz only a few matically transcribed. In the case of clas- years ago. My knowledge of music was sical music, many instrumentalists mem- strictly amateurish. With my saxophone 1 orize their parts, but they need not. The was able to play the melodic line of most scores are there. In the case of jazz, the sheet music and method book scores. If best that living musicians could do would the tune was familiar, I was even able to lx to imitate the style of the great jazz ‘sing’ the melody through my sax. With artists, but specific improvisations would the help of a classical music teacher, I be lost. studied through the Rubank series of in- structional books and developed some Lovers of classical music have suffered a technical proficiency. 1 began to buy similar loss, but many don’t know it. saxophone records by great jazz artists Many classical composers would bc sadly like Charlie Parker, Stan Gctz, Sonny disappointed to hear present-day perfor- Stitt, Johnny Hodges, Coleman Hawkins, mances of their music, particularly pas- Jimmy Dorsey, Lec Konitz, Stanley Tur- sages for solo voice or instrument. The rentme, Paul Dcsmond, Dave Newman, soloist was expecfed to ‘embellish’ the Gerry Mulligan, Eddie Miller, Boots Ran- composer’s written line. This was par- dolph and, my two favorites, King Curtis ticularly true of Baroque music. But what and Gene Ammons. would any classic music lover give to hear 1played my King Curtis records dozens the cadenzas that Mozart improvised of times in an unsuccessful attempt to when he played his own concerti! Those memorize the notes Curtis played. Why,

393 Eb alto saxophone

STRUTTIN’ WITH SOME BARBECUE

as performed by Paul Desmond Music by Don Ray transcribed by Neal S. Williams

—

1 —- , T 1 1 m * 1 , 1 1 1 1 m w [ 1 1 , 1 1 \ 1 1 1 I L-al

-----7-- . 4s!! I I 1 1 P- 1 n b 1 w- F 1 l-- r w r , , -- w I 1 1 1 I a r 1

Copyright 1950 by Leeds Music Corporation

394 I wondered, isn’t there sheet music for Sonny Stitt as it is for a member of the these records-- not only for the original Philadelphia Orchestra to play Debussy’s tunes he played, but also for his own im- Saxophone Rhapsody. provisation on them when he played. 1 decided to play these jazz transcrip- Not long ago, 1 wm forwnate enough tions for my classical music teacher. Hc to discover John Mehegan’s four-volume loved them! He had never before played work entitled Jazz lnzprovisation~, 1 A- jazz, but as he is an experienced sight mong other gems, 1 found in it Me- reader, after some practice he got the hegan’s transcription of Dizzy Gillespie’s idea. He enthusiastically agreed with me ‘‘1 Cav ‘t Get Started”. 1 had recently that jazz transcriptions would be ideal in had the pleasure of hearing Gillespie in helping young music students maintain person on a jazz cruise to Nassau, and I their interest when bored with the staple was delighted to find that even with my practice materials of classical music. It limited knowledge of notation and tech- would also serve as a perfect introduction nique, 1 could play ‘41 Can ‘t Get to what is now classic jazz. Started’ in the Gillespie style. At first, I In July 1975, my lSI@ colleague Neal could only maintain a tem~ as slow as a S, Williams transcribed for me Don Ray’s Bessie Smith blues, but, ~ter playing it (alias Louis Armstrong) “Struttin’ with dozens of times. I berzan to remember Some Barbecue”, as played by Paul Des- some of the riffs and managed to keep Vnd, and David Fathead Newman’s the tempo more lively. 1 found that performance of his own “Baby Rae”. A whenever 1 played Gillespie’s ‘‘1 Can’: brief passage of Williams’ transcription of Get Starred”, 1 too would vary ir slightly, ‘‘Struttin’ ‘‘ aPPeam on page 6. 1 pre- but the basic style was still Gillespie. dict that once out transcriptions become Surprisingly, there were times while play- more widely known, record companies ing other tunes that 1 felt the appropri- and music publishers will do what I wish ateness of a Gillespie riff, and inadvcr- they had done from the outset --provide tendy slipped it in. It was quite a thrill to transcriptions along with records. Perhaps realize that I was suddenly playing real an effective law might require all record jazz. companies to issue the Iyrlcs and a musi- cal transcription before granting record Later, I commissioned a number of copyrights, and the copyright law needs transcriptions of famous saxophone solos. to be modified to provide jazz musicians When 1 showed them to professional mu- sicians they were ecstatic. Most jazz musi- the protection their improvisations dc- cians, contrary to general belief, can read setve. A musical transcription, with every record, ought to be deposited with the music, and all of these professionals greatly enjoyed playing the arrangements. Library of Congress. When that happens, Yet, when I asked them why there were I can forget abou[ the business of pub- so fcw similar transcriptions to be had, lishing jazz, and will thankfully spend most of them seemed to wonder why any- the time saved playing jazz. one would need thcm--especially those [n a subsequcrrt essay 1 hope to give some histoly about America’s great jazz whom they mistakenly thought “can barely read music. ” And they would add saxophonists, and also to include a list of transcriptions that arc available from vari- something like, “But Stan Gctz docsn’t play it the same even if he plays it twice ous sources, including 1S1. the same night!” It appears to be t~e 1, Mehegan J. Jazz impuvisation. 4 VOIS. that if you transcribed two succcedmg (I. Tonafandrbythrrzic ~nhct>les. 11.jazz sessions, not every note would be identi- rhythm and the impttwised line. 111. cal, as one expects in a performance of Switrg and early progressive piano stylel. classical music. Neverrhclcss, it is as much IV. Contem~oraty ptino styie~. ) Ncw pleasure for a jazz musician to play a York: Watson-Guptil Publications, 1959- great arrangement by Gene Ammons or 1965.

395