"Footprints," Continued

A few more thoughts, picking up where the last post left off:

Applying the principle of "melody first," it's obvious that "Footprints" is a 12-bar blues in minor. If this were a generic blues, bars 9-10 might be harmonized in a way more or less like one of these:

|  Dm7  |  G7  |  

|  Dm7b5  |  G7b9  | 

|  D7  |  G7  | 

|  Ab7  |  G7  |

|  G7  |  Fm7  |

The melody uses a repeated B natural (leading tone in C minor) in bar 9, to a long Bb note in bar 10. To my ear, that works best with either  |  D7  |  G7  |  or   |  G7  |  Fm7  |. So here's hazarding another guess: Wayne wanted something hipper, taking one of these variations along a different route.

In the case of  |  D7  |  G7  | , here's how it might have gone:

F#m7b5 is the same thing as D9, minus the root D.
It could then be recast as the II chord in a II V :  |  F#m7b5  B7  | . That's bar 9. In our "bio" progression, he drops the b5 on the F# chord.

In bar 10, triads on both E and A are perfectly good upper structures for G7. Also, using these chords allows the bass line to continue along the circle of fourths. The tensions indicated in the "bio," Sher, and Aebersold charts add color, yet don't do anything to spoil the overall "G7" function of the measure.

You might note that the old bootleg Real Book shows  |  D7  |  Db7  | . In a reductionist sense, maybe the old RB wasn't entirely wrong, after all.

If the original route were via   |  G7  |  Fm7  | , it might have gone this way:

In bar 9, prepare the G7 with a D7, substitute F#m7b5 for D7, then route it to B7 instead, as in the previous case; in bar 10, think Fm6 with E in the bass (this equals E7"alt"), then route it to A7, as above.

Just guessing.

Also, I'm guessing that leaving the "7" off the B and A chords in the "bio" chart was inadvertent.

As for why the A7(#5, #9, #11) moves so nicely into the Cm9 that follows in bar 11, it's because 1) We totally expect a Cm9 there, and because 2) In Wayne's harmony, a dominant sound, creating tension, can pretty much resolve anywhere, into any tonic-sounding target chord.

Those "Footprints" Changes

I've just finished reading "Footprints," Michelle Mercer's biography of Wayne Shorter. This book goes a long way toward explaining Wayne's personality and his music, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is a Wayne fan. Although the book doesn't attempt much in the way of musical analysis, it includes a handwritten lead sheet of "Footprints" as a frontispiece.

As you may know, the chords to measures 9 and 10 appear a number of different ways in different publications. So it appears that we finally have something like a definitive version...or do we?

This lead sheet includes an intro in 4/4 that I've never heard played on any recording, by Wayne or anyone else. The chart also features a small change in the bass line in m 12, with the notes shown as:

(A kind of Picardy third thing - no one plays this, either...)

I had been under the impression that Wayne contributed lead sheets to the Aebersold playalong, as well as to the "Footprints" chart in the Sher New Real Book. While all very similar, these charts (bio, Aebersold, Sher) are not identical. Other print sources show some very different versions of the harmony for these two measures.

Following are some versions of mm 9-10:

From the "Footprints" bio mentioned above:

|  F#m9  B(+5, +9)  |  E7+9  A(+5, +9, +11)  |    (note: no 7 shown on the B or A chords)

From the Sher New Real Book, vol. 1:

|  F#m11(b5)  F13(#11)  |  E7alt  A7alt  |   or alternatively,  

|  F7(#11)  E7(#9)  |  D7alt  G7#5  |

Aebersold vol. 33:

|  F#m7b5  B7+9  |  E7+9  A7(+5, +9) or Eb7#11  |

Colorado Cookbook:

|  Gbm7b5  F7#11  |  E7#9  A7alt  |   or alternatively, with a 4 against 6 feel:

|  Dbsus/Ab   Csus/Db   Bsus/F3   Bbsus/B   |   Asus/E   Absus/A   Gsus/D   Gbsus/G   | 

"The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book" (Hal Leonard)

|  F7b5  F13  |  E9b5  A9  |

Old (bootleg) Real Book:

 |   D7   |   Db7   |

Jimmy Rowles (via David Ferris - see this discussion):

|  F#m11  B7  |  Fm11  Bb13(#11)  |

Hal Leonard "Artist Transcriptions":

|  D13  G9  |  Em7b5  A7  | 

Hal Leonard "6th Edition" Real Book:

|  F#m7b5  F7#11  |  E7b5(#9)  A7b5(#9)  |

So which version is "right"? Well, if you want to approximate the treatment of this tune on the "Adam's Apple" LP  (the first time it was recorded, February 1966), you should probably use the first version above. It seems to be pretty close to the way the band plays mm 9-10.

By the time "Footprints" was recorded by Miles Davis' group on the "Miles Smiles" album (October 1966), the treatment of the tune had become more abstract. Here are a few later live recordings by Miles' group:

Sweden 10/31/67  (the form is very loose)
Germany 11/7/67
France July 1969

On Wayne's "Footprints Live" album (2005), the treatment is very free indeed.

I would hazard a guess that Wayne did supply lead sheets for Aebersold and Sher, but that he tweaked each one a little differently. That's a composer's privilege.

You might note that in the lead sheet from the bio and in the Aebersold chart, chord extensions are specified, and the expression "alt" is not used. I'd hazard another guess - that the editors of the Sher book decided to use the "alt" expression. "Alt" means that both the ninth and the fifth have been altered (raised or lowered) in some way, but the expession does not specify exactly how. The "bio" chart is quite specific. The expression "alt" also implies the usage of a "altered" (aka "superlocrian" or "diminished whole tone") scale over the chord; I don't think that's necessarily what Wayne had in mind.

Some of the charts exhibit definite wrongness: for example, the "Ultimate Jazz Fake Book" chart shows bars 5-6 as Abmaj7. The "Artist Transcriptions" chart seems pretty far off in the chords to mm 9-10, and besides that is written in 3/4 rather than in 6/4. You might say that that is a judgement call, but all of the supposedly Wayne-derived charts show the tune in 6/4. Anyway, when notated in 6/4 it looks more like a 12-bar blues.

So - I'd say check out the sound of these various versions, and take your choice. Also bear in mind that Wayne left this sort of literalness behind long ago, 40+ years ago. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Eric Nemeyer in January 2000, printed in the magazine "Jazz Improv," regarding the song "Dolores," also from the "Miles Smiles" album:

Wayne:  "...we were actually tampering with something called DNA in music in a song. So you just do the DNA and not the whole song. You do the characteristics. You say, "Okay, I will do the ear of the face, I will do the left side of the face. You do the right side of the face..."

EN: "You are looking at maintaining the flavor and character of the tune without necessarily being bound by the harmonic structure that was underlying the melody?"

Wayne: "Yeah. Because...in those days we were talking about getting rid of the bar lines."

EN: "Yeah. and was Herbie Hancock's accompanying - do you know if he was looking at it the same way? Or was it just meant for the whole thing to be loose and 'let's use our ears and see what goes'?"

Wayne: "Yeah, that's all..." 

Many of the points in this post are considered in forum discussions here, here, and here.

There are a few more thoughts about "Footprints" in my next post.

"Poor Butterfly" and "What Makes a Good Chart?" - Part 2

This is Part 2. If you'd like to read Part 1 first, click here.

Before continuing, a word about melody. Most of the printed charts cited here show the same basic melody that was presented in the original sheet music. It's understood that performers will supply their own interpretations. No one will play it as written. In trying to come up with a good chart, we are really talking about the chords. Also, we are not concerned with the introductory "verse."

So, to resume, here are some more print and recorded sources that I checked out.


Ralph Patt’s “Vanilla Changes” (ralphpatt.com)

This site has interesting “vanilla” versions of the changes to many standards. This chart is simple enough, but has a few unique spots. It differs from my own "Poor Butterfly Basic" chart (shown in Part 1) as follows:

m 5 and m 21: | Db7 |
mm 9-10: | Bb7 Eb7 | Eb7 |
mm 11-12: | C7 Fm | Fm |
m 25: | Db | (not great, I think)
mm 27-28 | Ab F7 | F7 |

Note how the chords change on beat 3 in mm 9-19, 11-12, and 27-28. Interesting, but not in keeping with most other versions of this tune. I think this chart, though simple, goes in the direction of an “arrangement,” rather than a truly “vanilla” version.


Dick Hyman, “Dick Hyman's Professional Chord Changes and Substitutions for 100 Tunes Every Musician Should Know” (1986)

Dick Hyman is a legendary pianist, and his opinions come with some authority. This chart seems quite piano-oriented, and moves further into “arrangement” territory. It’s pretty thick with chords. A few notable features:

mm 0 and 16: pickups harmonized on each note: Eb7 E7 F7, or alternatively, Db9 C7 B7#11
mm 1-2:  |  Bbm F+   |  Bbm7   Eb7b9   |
mm 5-6:  |  C7#5 Db7  | C7#5 | , or alternatively,  |  G7(b9,#5)  G7b9  |  C7(b9,#5)  C7#5  |
mm 7-8:  |  Cm7  |  F7  |
mm 11-12:  | Edim  Fm  |  Fm   |
mm 26-27:  | Bb  F+   |  Bbm7  Bbm7/Eb  Eb7b9 |

There are some good ideas here, but it’s definitely not a “vanilla” chart. Here's a link to the book.


I would differentiate between a chart for general use and an “arrangement.” A chart for general use, as I see it, should be easy to memorize, and should be compatible with as many other (possibly more detailed) charts as possible. It should be open enough to give improvisers some latitude. An “arrangement,” on the other hand, is fine-tuned in a personal direction, with more detail.

I prefer fakebooks with more general, “vanilla” charts. But the more detailed ones often have some useful ideas.

Following are some of the recorded performances that I checked out:


Cannonball Adderley, from the album “Cannonball Takes Charge” (1959)

This recording seems to use the changes shown below:

There are three transcriptions of Cannonball’s solo available, from Brian Pendelton ("15 Alto Solos," 1991), Hunt Butler ("Cannonball Adderley: 20 Solos", 1990) and “Doc” Stewart (see his website). They are all very good, with a few minor judgment-call discrepancies on rhythms and chords. This chart shows what I hear in the recording, taking into account the piano and the sax solo line (Wynton Kelly is on piano). Some observations:

mm 1-2 and 17-18: Sometimes treated as | Bbm Bbm#7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | (e.g., sax solo 2nd chorus, mm 1-2, and piano on out head), usually as just          | Bbm7 | Eb7 |. 

mm 3 and 19: Abdim/G is a nice touch. 

m 11: Sometimes | Abmaj7 C7 | 

m 5-6 and 21-22: This is treated as a generic dominant, with the players using whatever extensions seem right at the moment. The transcriptions differ on this.

Jim Hall/Paul Desmond, from “Glad to be Unhappy” (1964)

This chart qualifies as an "arrangement." Here's the tune on Youtube. A great transcription of a great Jim Hall solo is on Steve Kahn’s website. Compared to PBB (see Part 1, my previous post), some features are:

mm 3-4:   | Abmaj7 Db7 | Cm7 F7 |
mm 5-6:   | Abm7 Db7 | Gm7 C7 |
mm 9-10:   | Bb7 | Bbm7 Eb7 |
mm 31-32:   | Abmaj7 Db7 | Cm7 F7 |

Benny Goodman (1940)

A model basic version, almost exactly following the PBB chart. Bar 11 is | Abma7 C7 |. Here is the cut.


Oscar Peterson/Count Basie, from “Yessir, that’s My Baby” (1976)

Again, pretty basic. You can listen to it here. This version is in the key of F rather than the usual Ab. Differences from PBB:

mm 3 and 19:  Fdim, as in the Cannonball version, but only on the head.
m 9:  Gm7 for the solos
m 11:  Em7b5 A7, but just in one solo chorus. 

(These chords function in F. Go up a m3 to compare to the other versions.)

Sonny Rollins, “Vol. 2” (1957)

Here's the cut. Once again, a basic interpretation. Horace Silver is the pianist. Some features:

mm 1-2 and 16-17: | Bbm Bbm#7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | - This is a normal enough way to play a II V. See the Cannonball version. Silver uses it through most, but not all, of the tune.

mm 3-4 and 18-19: | Abmaj7 Bbm7 | Cm7 Bbm7 | - A normal way to play 2 measures of Abmaj7. Silver varies the rhythm.

mm 22-23:  | Cm Cm#7 | Cm7 F7 | - One way to play Cm7 F7 (see above).

After all this...

If I were putting together a fakebook, I would stick with the “PBB” lead sheet, with m 11 changed to | Abmaj7 C7 | and m 32 changed to | Cm7 F7 |. For an “arrangement” I might add in the diminished chord in bar 3 - not much more. This tune needs to keep some of its old-fashioned charm.

If you are looking more a bit more cleverness, you might try some ideas from the Dick Hyman chart and/or the Paul Desmond/Jim Hall version.


Tom’s Comments

Finally, here are some thoughts about lead sheets from my friend Tom Simpson:

I think the pedagogic goal should be to get a good basic chart/roadmap of the tune that will serve players well for the moment, but also for the future. In some ways, the chart should be a kind of norm for how most jazz players think of the tune. The danger of this is, of course, that one might end up with a very bland arrangement. This is where decisions can be made "on the spot" to juice up the arrangement for performance purposes. This may be done either by "penciling it in", or it may be done on-the-fly by experienced players.

The established approach to the tune may be quite different from the original sheet music (or not). Different fakebooks and recordings of the tune may also reveal different harmonizations. This is where some analysis and judgement is required to extract the "best changes" for the tune. Usually, differences can be seen as more or less equivalent solutions to the same harmonic problem. Occasionally, differences may be so great that they cannot be seen as the same harmony. In this case, you simply have to choose, and yet be aware that there is another way to do it.

"Vanilla" charts should reflect established jazz practice, but should not attempt to specify chord alteration in too much detail; i.e., in most cases leave off alteration beyond 6th or 7th degree of the chord. The notation should leave room for creative use of established jazz practice. After all, the "vanilla" chart should be a model of the tune, not an arrangement per se.

“Poor Butterfly” and "What Makes a Good Chart?" - Part 1

In this post, and the one to follow, I’ll toss around a few ideas on what qualities we should look for in a lead sheet, and how one might approach creating a good lead sheet, using the standard tune “Poor Butterfly” as an example. I’ve tried to do my homework on this tune, and have some opinions about what a chart should look like.

My friend Tom Simpson did some research on this song, and I did some more of my own (thanks, Tom!). I can’t say that we did an absolutely complete research job, but I think these posts will provide a fairly good model of how to do “due diligence.”

“Poor Butterfly” was written for a 1916 production at the New York Hippodrome called “The Big Show.” The composers were Raymond Hubbell (music) and John L. Golden (lyrics). The song was composed in an elephant pen in the basement of the Hippodrome (see this article on JazzStandards.com).

The song became popular almost immediately; several recordings were hits in 1917. It has remained a standard since then, with many recordings by jazz and popular artists over the decades. To name just a few: Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Arnett Cobb, Ahmad Jamal, Sarah Vaughn, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson, Jim Hall and Paul Desmond (see this Wikipedia article for a more complete list of recordings).

If you don’t know the tune, first listen to Cannonball Adderley’s version, then to Sarah Vaughn’s very-close-to-the-original version (including the introductory "verse"), then to any of the others mentioned in these posts. I first became acquainted with “Poor Butterfly” when I was playing with a local big band in the ‘70s and ‘80s; we had a transcription of a great Les Elgart arrangement with a nice tenor spot.

So how would one come up with a good chart for this song? Just looking at print versions, we can find a number of different takes on the harmony. Listening to recordings by jazz artists, we find still more variations.

Following are the first print versions I consulted, with comments (more in the next post):


Original sheet music (1916)
Sheet music from musicnotes.com (2010) 

You can download the original sheet music here. It’s in the public domain, as it was copyrighted in 1916. It has a piano accompaniment, but no chord symbols. The sheet music from musicnotes.com is an almost exact re-engraving of the original, but with chord symbols added; these chord symbols reflect almost exactly the notes in the original piano accompaniment. Below is basically what these "original" charts show:

 
This chart would be OK if you were playing ukelele or guitar, reading the sheet music, accompanying a pianist and singer - as might have been the norm in, say, 1925. It may be the original, but this chart is not useful for jazz players. The harmony is too simple, and the chords move in ways that back up the melody, but are not improv-friendly (however, it’s interesting to note that the 1916 harmony does use dominant ninth and major ninth chords). Also, the chart needlessly shows a chord change whenever the melody moves from 9 to 1 or from #5 to 5 (e.g. mm 3-4, 5-6, 7-8). 

Hal Leonard Real Book vol. 3 (2006)
Jamey Aebersold vol. 80 (1997)

These more recent charts are aimed at jazz players, and they are fairly “vanilla” - that is, they keep the changes simple. Below is a common-denominator chart for this approach (I’m not reproducing the Hal Leonard or Aebersold charts in respect of copyright). I’ve called this “PB Basic” (PBB).

 
Comparing it to the “original,” note the insertion of Bbm7 chords to create II V progressions in bars 1, 15, 17, and 29; also note that the harmonic rhythm has generally been squared off so that the changes come either on beat 1, or on beats 1 and 3. Bar 26 uses the IVm chord for the full measure. If a ninth or other extension is in the melody, it is not notated into the chord; it’s expected that players will voice chords their own way, with or without 9ths, 11ths, or 13ths.

The Hal Leonard chart (from this book) differs from “PBB” in a few ways:

mm 11-12: | Fm7 C7#5 | Fm7 | (possible)
m 15: Bbm7b5 (not to my taste)
m 26: | Dbm7 Gb7 | (possible)
mm 27-28: | Abmaj7 Db7#11 | Cm7 F7 | (OK, but not my choice) 

The chart in the Jamey Aebersold playalong vol. 80 (Mark Levine on piano) differs from PBB as follows: 

m11: | Gm7b5 C7#9 | (possible)
m26: Eb7 (not good, we lose the IVm sound)
however, the separate "solo changes" show mm26-29 as in the Hal Leonard chart:
| Dbm7 Gb7 | Abmaj7 Db7 | Cm7 F7 |

Old Real Book vol. 3 (bootleg, 1980s?)
songtrellis.com
Jamey Aebersold vol. 39 (1987)

Below is the chart from “Old RB3,” a bootleg from (I think) the 1980s. It works fine but seems to me a little fussy - too many changes, too many extensions shown. I prefer a chart to be more “vanilla” than this. But I do like the Abdim7 in bars 3 and 19 (see the Cannonball version in the post to follow).

The Bdim7 in bar 28 is meant to be on beat 4 of the measure (it’s a vestige from the original sheet music).

The chart from songtrellis.com seems to be cribbed from the old RB chart - the chords are identical, except for m28, where the Bdim7 has been mistakenly entered as on beats 3 and 4. Played on beat 3, it would make a brief clash with the melody - not awful, but not something the songwriters had in mind (and a nonprofessional moment).

The chart from the Jamey Aebersold playalong vol. 39 (Hal Galper on piano) is remarkably similar to the old RB chart, with these differences:

mm 1-2: | Bbm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 |
mm 27-28: | Cm | Bdim | (clash with melody on m28, beat 3.)
mm 31-32: | Ab Db7 | Cm7 F7 |
this chart also adds a coda

To be continued - in the next post I'll look at several more print and recorded sources.

Gig Story: Out There Orchestra at Stella Blue Tavern

The “Out There Orchestra” was a free-jazz group anchored by Cookie and Bob, who had a house in Belmont with a really nice music room/studio downstairs. The band members changed from time to time; I was part of the sessions for a few months. The musical ethic was, of course, “outness.”

“Out” meant unpredictable, intense, over the top. I don’t think that we ever had any specific tunes, as such, in the repertoire. The idea was to just improvise from the vibe. No groove lasted very long, because that would not have been out enough. We tried to go beyond any musical patterns as soon as they were set up. (See Cookie’s deeper description of the meaning of “out,” in the notes below this story.)

This was in about 1982. Cookie’s comments are in italics.

We’d meet in the evening. Bob would make some killer coffee, and then we’d head downstairs to play.

Beyond coffee, this was part of the ritual. Bob bought an $800 espresso machine from Italy, the equivalent of say a $5000 machine today. There was no Starbucks or Peet’s. One had to drive to North Beach to get a capuccino. From grinding the coffee to steamed half and half, Bob blasted out many well groomed cups for sessions. His technique included pouring the pulled espresso over the steamed half and half... an all important detail to note for historical purposes, of course.

Somehow, the Out There Orchestra got a gig at the Stella Blue Tavern, which was the kind of place that people today call a “dive bar,” down the hill in Belmont, by the tracks. I don’t know how we got the gig. I can’t imagine that anyone brought in a demo tape - although Cookie often did record our sessions. I’m sure that the management had no idea what kind of music we played. The place had a decent-size, raised stage.

I think I got the gig after walking in wondering "what is this place". I asked the owner if we could play here and he said "yes". No demo tape needed. He had no idea what was coming. :)

So we went over to Stella Blue on a Saturday night at 8:30, and set up our equipment. The musicians were: Cookie on keyboards, Bob on drums, Perry on bass, Terry on guitar, Ray on trumpet, and myself on tenor sax (and maybe bass clarinet). We also brought along Willie the Poet, who had made it to a few previous sessions, reading some of his truly “out” poetry, to which we would improvise an accompaniment. Willie’s poetry was dark, in a sort of neo-Bukowski style, with a little William Burroughs thrown in - not for the faint of heart, or for impressionable minors. Willie brought his own six-pack of beer (quarts). There were maybe 8 or 10 customers at the bar, plus the bartender and one other employee.

At 9:00 we started playing. By 9:30 we had driven out all the patrons, leaving only the bartender and employee.

One of the people in the audience was my oldest friend in the world, Amy Yamamoto. She hated the music and left. We had accomplished our job of emptying out the building of paying customers. 

We were just getting warmed up, reaching our first peak of outness. After another half hour or so, the bartender and employee for some reason felt driven to participate in the extreme creativity that they were witnessing. They began to bring objects onto the stage. First several broken chairs, then a mop, then a garbage can. Terry (the guitar player) got into the garbage can and continued to play, then tried to close the lid on himself. The bartender and his friend kept bringing stuff onto the stage. They emptied out a closet and put the stuff on the stage - a moose head, a toilet, a kitchen sink.

The band was unfazed, playing with nonstop outness, periodically bringing the volume down for Willie to read his poetry.

LOL.. are you sure we brought the volume down for Willie? Just joking.

The bartender had given up on doing any business that night. He pushed the pool table over in front of the stage, put a couple of chairs on it, and drank while sitting in the chairs on top of the pool table.

When the gig was over, he invited us back for the next week.

Like breaking up with your spouse, the bartender went through the “Sad, Mad, Glad” phases...well, more like Horrified, Angry, "Nobody's going to believe this so I'm going to give them another gig" phases.

The next Saturday we showed up again. The bartender, impressed by how out we were, had invited a bunch of his friends. Cookie had enlisted a couple of her students, high school girls, as roadies. While we were setting up, the bartender found out that the girls were 16 and said they had to leave. He wouldn't budge. Cookie was ticked off, so we packed up before the gig started and invited everyone to the studio for our performance. We set up again at the studio, bringing along a few bar patrons, and had another great session.

Good times had by all! The assistants in questions were Ritie and Linda, my students. Ritie called me a few years ago having not spoken to her for about 30 years. She wanted to let us know that she turned out well adjusted, happy, and that we changed her life. She's now retired and playing the flute.

If any Bay Area readers remember Friday Night Music, a free-jazz institution that ran in Palo Alto for many years, I can tell you that the Out There Orchestra was similar, but more intense, and with less structure.

Actually, I think we had more structure, just less recognizable, which was the intention.

The house has become the HQ of OTR Studios, a very well-regarded recording studio run by Cookie, who has become a record producer of renown. I play a lot more “normally” these days. Willie is still a poet, more seriously out than ever.

Ray is a senior exec at Intel, Perry works at Stanford, Bob works for Visa and Terry was last seen riding his bicycle in San Francisco with guitar strapped to his back. I enjoy periods of "outness" through an alternate persona called "Blu Cube". Blu Cube was created to protect my career as a music producer. Blu does live dub remixes with electronics in the studio and has more than a dozen credits. I have no idea why.

Update!!! Les, the manager/bartender, has been living in Germany since 1993. He found this story on the web, and checked in with some comments - see below.

More Notes From Cookie

I don't think I would call outness "random". I call our form of out music "reactive listening and improvisation". Like Picasso, OTO had various periods of how we dealt with music. It was musical evolution through revolution. We were pushing ourselves to extremes.

Prior to performing with you and Willie the Poet, OTO had passed the "Miles Davis Funk in D" period, where the music was structured around key centers and repeated patterns. Prior to the "Funk in D" period were more traditional compositions, usually in odd meters similar to Mahavishnu Orchestra where improvisation took place over structured chord changes and meters. Miles, McLaughlin, Cecil Taylor, and ECM were influences along with modern composers like Takamitsu, Cage and Penderecki.

The period with you and Willie I call the "Games" period. Bored with traditional forms and charts, we created "Games". The Game when Willie came to the sessions was to be the musical soundtrack to his poetry. We added "The Drama".

I believe one of the musical games we played at Stella Blue was a little number called, "Everybody in the band pick a tune without telling the others in the band what you are playing and the tempo is equivalent to 1 beat every 30 seconds." At the end of the tune, we'd try to figure out what the others were playing. This piece had two public performances, I believe one was the first fateful night at Stella Blue.

Another tune was called "21 notes in three movements". Band members were trusted to play 21 notes and stop. Movements were Fast, Slow, and He Who Plays the Last Note Wins.

This period of OTO Games ended with the last of my compositions called "One Note". (You may have been at this performance). All band members chose one note and only one note to play. You could repeat the note as many times as possible, play it long, interact to create music hockets with others, but you only had one note. The first performance lasted 45 minutes, was recorded and has kind of taken on a world of its own with radio airplay in the 90's-- still not sure why.

After the Game period, OTO evolved into SciFi, a band with no concept for pieces except musical trust and improvisational composition. After that, there was no place to go musically. The bands dissolved.

Whatever period we were in, OTO always had listening and trust as a key component. We trusted that what was played would be heard and the musicians’ own compositional sense would react and respond, whether it took the form of acknowledgement through repeating an idea audibly or consciously ignoring the musical thoughts of the musicians around you.

The name OTR Studios came from Out There Recording, a tribute to the band.

I became a recording engineer and producer with a career that includes 5 Grammy Noms and 2 Gold records. The degree of "outness" we shared positioned me to be fearless in the studio with form, composition and musicality. I'm forever grateful.

Cookie Marenco

www.bluecoastrecords.com 

www.dsd-guide.com 

www.otrstudios.com 

www.cookiemarenco.com 

www.downloadsnow.net

Mike and Tom Take a Lesson With Charles Lloyd

Here's another great story from Mike Morris, in his own words.

Approximately, I think it was around 1964, just before I went into the Army, Tom Harrell and I were living together, in the Los Gatos area. Tom and I went to see Cannonball Adderley’s sextet, the group he had at the time with Charles Lloyd. It was at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. We were very impressed by Charles Lloyd - he was doing all this new stuff, like Coltrane - he was coming out of Coltrane. He had his Conn tenor, it looked really cool - it was different, you know. He was using an old Otto Link mouthpiece. Probably the same setup he’s still using now, I think.

After the show was over, we approached Charles Lloyd, and told him that we were musicians, and we were interested in taking a lesson with him. He said “Oh yeah, sure,” and set up a time for us to come and see him. He was staying at the St. Francis. So we went to the hotel the next day. The musicians were all staying there, but Cannonball and his brother weren’t there, they were in another room.

So he takes us into one of the rooms, and says, “OK, it’s going to be 25 bucks each.” We thought well, that would be all right - this was in 1964, so it was a lot more money than it is now. But we thought, it was Charles Lloyd, it would be worth it.

Charles Lloyd said, “We’re going to do interpolation.” Tom and I looked at each other, wondering what was going on here. I mean, there were two of us, and we were not going to get separate lessons.

Musicians, girlfriends, and visitors were constantly coming and going, distracting him. 

“We’re going to learn interpolation. This is something that’s really good to know how to do.” He took out a piece of blank music paper and a marker pen. He said, “I’m just going to mark these things all over the place,” and started putting spots in random places all over the paper. Then he connected the spots with lines and stems, randomly making eighth notes and quarter notes, different rhythms. Then he added bar lines. Of course, it was completely nonsensical. He said, “This is great to practice, because it really opens your mind up to all kinds of stuff. I practice these things all the time.” He gave us the sheet to take home.

We had no idea how to use this. We had never even gotten our horns out for the lesson.

And then he said, “Here are some chords, that hardly anybody knows yet.” Then he gave us the changes to Coltrane’s “Countdown.” The record had just come out, and he had the changes. That was the best thing we got that day. Nobody else had those changes, and nobody else was playing them.

So that was it. Within an hour, we were out of there.

(Note: It seems to me that getting the changes to “Countdown” in 1964 probably had a significant effect on Mike's subsequent musical life. Mike kills on Coltrane changes. Tom Harrell, today, is one of the great jazz trumpeters of our time. If you are not familiar with his work, check out this Wikipedia entry, and then check out some of his albums.)