Get Ready for More Steve Gadd Licks
Ever since I wrote the piece about Gadd’s playing with the Manhattan Jazz Quintet, I’ve been itching to give you my transcription of his fours from “Jordu.” Steve takes eight fours on the tune, which is from the “Autumn Leaves” album released in 1985. It turns out that the transcribing of these mini solos is a bit more difficult than I thought, and I’ve been revising my original transcription….polishing the details and making sure that it is worthy and ready for publication on the world wide web.
Since I’m still tweaking it, I decided to whet your appetite a little by posting just the first two fours. I’ll follow up shortly with the rest, but these are both great and there are good lessons to be learned from checking them out.
First, get your hands on the PDF by clicking this link: Gadds Fours on Jordu Part One
Proof That The Rudiments Are Worthwhile
The first lesson is that rudiments are useful! Check out the first four. The first lick Gadd plays is a combination of a single paradiddle and left handed paradiddle-diddle. It sounds amazing! So don’t listen to anyone who says the rudiments are a waste of time. This is a great example of why they are not.
Repeating A Phrase is a Good Way to Hook Your Audience
The second lesson, which you can learn by checking out the second four, is that repeating a great sounding lick or phrase is a good strategy to get your audience excited. Steve is great at doing this, and it is one of the things that I believe makes him such a strong soloist. Sticking with a single idea for a number of measures will give your audience something to latch onto. Musicians who play complicated patterns that change every few beats may think that they’re being slick, but I think they are losing an opportunity to build exciting solos by playing to other musicians rather than to the “layperson.”
That’s all for now. I’ll return shortly with the rest of Gadd’s transcribed fours from “Jordu.” Until then…
WHEN MJQ MEANS “Manhattan Jazz Quintet”
Most people think of MJQ as the Modern Jazz Quartet. Not me. For me, MJQ means The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, whose first album was released in 1984. The original line-up
of the band featured a ridiculously sick group of New York based jazz musicians:
Steve Gadd (ds), Eddie Gomez (bs), David Matthews (p), Lew Soloff (tp) and George
Young (sx).
The group was put together by Matthews, an in-demand session keyboardist, composer,
producer and arranger whose employers included James Brown and CTI Records among
many, many others.
Gadd appeared on 11 Manhattan Jazz Quintet albums between 1984 and 2008. In between
there have been multiple versions of the line-up, and other drummers in the band
have included Peter Erskine, Al Foster, and Dave Weckl (who played on the MJQ albums “Caravan,” “Face To Face,” and “Plays Blue Note,” all in the late ’80′s).
I’ve always loved Gadd’s straight ahead jazz playing, and once I heard his performances
with Chick Corea, I longed for more. But Steve’s career took a turn in a pop
direction (this is not a diss–it’s just a fact), and it seemed more and more
difficult to find him playing in this setting.
When a friend turned me onto these MJQ records, I was ecstatic. They had everything
I was looking for from Steve’s jazz drumming: aggression, finesse, extraordinary technique, a unique drum sound, a distinctive set of vocabulary, a marvelously fluid and swinging time feel, great solos, great solos, and did I mention that Steve takes great solos on these albums? I always loved how Steve seemed to have distilled Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Philly Joe Jones and Buddy Rich into his own creative sound.
Pssst….I love the 8′s that Steve takes on “Jordu,” from the 2nd album, “Autumn Leaves,” so I’ve transcribed them. I’ll post those shortly.
Gadd’s Discography with MJQ
Below is a list of Steve Gadd’s recorded output with The Manhattan Jazz Quintet. I
am most familiar with those MJQ albums made in the ’80s, and I highly recommend
them, although I would be surprised if any Gadd fans would be disappointed with any of these.
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“Manhattan Jazz Quintet” (1984)
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“Autumn Leaves” (1985)
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“My Funny Valentine” (1985)
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“Live At The Pit Inn” (1986)
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“The Sidewinder” (1986)
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“My Favorite Things: Live in Tokyo” (1987)
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“Live!” (1987)
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“Manhattan Blues” (1990)
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“Blues March” (1994)
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“Concierto do Arenjuez” (1996) (Gadd not on all tracks)
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“VSOP” (2008)
For More Information…
For more in-depth information about The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, check out the following links:
- Wikipedia http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Jazz_Quintet
- All Music Guide http://www.allmusic.com/artist/manhattan-jazz-quintet-p7034/biography
- David Matthews’ website http://www.davidmatthewsjazz.com/
I Want To Hear From YOU!
Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Do you not care at all what I write? Whatever it is, please comment here on the blog or write to me and tell me what you think. Let’s talk.
Are you ready?
I am about to give you one of my Nastiest of the Nasty Licks!!! Nasty Lick #38 is one of my favorites. It pretty much ALWAYS gets a reaction. Just check out the screams from the audience when I launch into it in the video below. It’s a live video of my rock band MANCIE playing at Spike Hill in Brooklyn, NY in November of 2011.
It’s a cool song and the band is great, so check it out. But if you want to go right to the drum solo, it begins at around 2:52 in the video.
I begin with some rudimental type stuff on the snare, work in some hand/foot combinations, and then launch into Nasty Lick #38. You can skip directly to Nasty Lick #38 by going to 3:03 in the video.
The Video: MANCIE, Live at Spike Hill
The Transcription
Alright! Want to know how to do that? Just print out the PDF by clicking here:Nasty Lick 38 PDF
Analysis of Example #1
The lick as played in the video is written out in example #1. The pattern—three groups of five notes–is played a total of five times. I move counter clockwise around the drums, with the first note of each group of five on a different drum: 1) snare, 2) floor tom, 3) high tom.
That accented note is followed by two ghost notes with the left hand and then two fast bass drum notes. Note that at this part of the solo, the time is “free.” I’m just going off, playing the lick a bunch of times and then improvising as I see fit. It’s an open solo, so playing “freely” is always an option. I cue the band to come back in, so I don’t have to worry about the pulse.
Analysis of Example #2
Example #2 is another way to use the lick that I rely on frequently. This time, we play completely in time. In this case, each group of five takes up the space of three 16th notes. I’ve included a measure of accented 16th notes below the lick so you can see how the phrasing lines up. The first note of each group of five lines up with the 16th notes shown below example #2 as follows: 1) the “1,” 2) the “a” of “1,” 3) the “and” of “2,” 4) the “e” of “3.” Finally, you can easily resolve the lick by playing an accented note on beat four with your right hand.
Let Me Know What You Think!
I want to hear from you! Please leave comments here on the blog so you can ask questions, give your opinion, or tell me how you are using this lick….