Listening and Learning: one song, three ways

[VJOFan]

I sat down here at lunch and felt like listening to a favourite track from a J J Johnson album. It was just as easy to You Tube it as to pull it up from my iTunes on my phone.

So many versions of See See Rider.

I had only ever really listened to the version on the third link I'll post below. I had no idea it was this old. I, at an embarrassingly advanced age for this, have learned to dig a little deeper into music you like to get the depth of a song.

Bunk Johnson's Band [trad version]



J J Johnson from studio album Pinnacles [J J's solo starts out just like the live version but then he takes off. Seems to take more chances in studio than live??? Makes some sense but exactly opposite to how my brain works. That's why he had a career and I am typing here.]


J J Johnson from live album Standards Live at the Village Vanguard [Still my favourite for the soul and energy.]

[timothy42b]

Triggered a thought about playing by ear, maybe a new thread is better.

[VJOFan]

Upon further investigation I see that this tune is one of those that goes back into the very origins of American popular musical styles. As far as the recorded history of music is concerned, the song has always been.

If there comes a day when I can immerse myself in musical study again I will definitely spend half as much time blowing my horn and twice as much time with ear buds in.

[afugate]

If there comes a day when I can immerse myself in musical study again I will definitely spend half as much time blowing my horn and twice as much time with ear buds in.

Buy a good set of headphones if you're going to be listening. I had a set of Shure in-ear buds that I thought was pretty good. At least, until I took Exaclee's big band composition class, where I was required to do listening to identify which parts were doing what in various charts. I bought myself a set of decent headphones that made me discover what I was missing. They were also so much better when I started doing my arrangements as I could hear the chord structures so much better.

My 2 cents...

--Andy in OKC

[SwissTbone]

I took Exaclee's big band composition class...

Curious to hear more on that!

[afugate]

I took Exaclee's big band composition class...

Curious to hear more on that!

Zac's class was a blast! Masters level - 4 students total - and I was the only duffer in the group. I took the class because I love big band jazz. Zac was kind, thoughtful, and inspiring as a teacher. About 3 weeks into the class, we had one class where he started talking about some theory subjects that had me completely baffled. I stopped Zac after class and told him I was concerned that I was out of my league. He spent the next hour working through the concepts we had covered that day and talked me off a ledge.

We started out by listening to recordings to identify form and section roles - who's doing what in the tune - and that really opened up my ears. Then we talked about voicing, selected a favorite tune, and then wrote out a sax soli. I wrote mine to "Just in Time". And we had the sax section from the University of Central Oklahoma's top jazz band give our charts a read. I was pleased with mine. (But I would do some things differently now... lol)

We continued scoring out various sections, working through concepts, etc. We ended the semester by writing our own tune. I wrote a composition I called "A Summertime Caravan", which was a take on the tune Summertime, but with a Caravan feel and a bridge I created using riffs and changes from the bridge in Caravan.

As our semester final, we each had our songs read by the UCO #2 jazz band. We passed out our charts, gave the group a quick talk through the tune, and then they performed it. Just thinking about this makes me want to do some arranging! (Not happening though. My time is completely consumed right now by a run for public office here in OKC. It'll have to wait until next summer.)

--Andy in OKC