Here’s a bouncy song guaranteed to get your juices flowing—if you have any. It’s one of my favorite jazz pieces, “Cottontail,” written by Duke Ellington and recorded in 1940 with his famous “Blanton-Webster” band. It’s most famous for the tenor saxophone solo by Ben Webster, one of the all-time greats. It starts at at 0:29 and lasts until 1:34, and it swings. In fact, if I wanted to demonstrate the concept of “swing” in jazz, I’d use that bit. That solo hugely influenced the next generation of saxophonists.
Wikipedia notes that “It is based on the rhythm changes from George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”. You can hear echoes of Gershwin’s melody in there, but you wouldn’t know that unless you were told. Jazzmeisters of that era could take a popular song and change it into something completely different.
Now that’s evolution!
Listen to Cotton Tail, 1940 version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbOseBw-fnU
Now that’s a walloping dose of whimsy. Almost as invigorating as a playful kitten squirming under the covers and leaving paw prints on your bare skin. 🙂
The changes to “I Got Rhythm” are ubiquitous in jazz. You could probably get a college degree if you could calculate how many tunes use those chords.
Love this one with the Webster solo and also the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vocalese version:
“I’m a hoooked rabbit!
Yeah, I got a carrot habit!”
Sub
Improvisation has always been a big part of jazz. It is part of what makes live jazz so interesting. You never know quite what you are going to hear.
I’m awake! I’m awake!
…better’n coffee, for that matter….
b&
“It is based on the rhythm changes from George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm””
Well that’s Wikipedia for you. It’s actually based on the chord changes I didn’t listen all the way through but I didn’t hear any rhythm changes in the part I listened to.
As Bruce notes @4 above: This is one of the most common chord sequences in all of jazz especially the ‘middle eight’ (bridge passages to academics)
It’s pretty clear from the sound that the Duke heavily influenced some of my favorite bands. You can hear his swing sax sound living on in this one:
Morphine – Honey White https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTHXzHLk1ZQ
(sax solo at 2:00 in)
Perhaps slightly off topic, but my first “awakening” to jazz (from mainstream European Rock) was on a low-priced compilation LP of various artists.
This (likely not very known) track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlxnOQ91vTI caught my attention.
I would guess Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull had paved the way in making flute an “edible” instrument, but I found the shifts in dynamic, theme & rythm by John Cameron and Harold McNair fascinating and really something else than the usual “steady beat” in rock. I guess it was the shifts at 0:50, 2:00 and 3:10 that really stood out for me.