Listening
To listen to this album for free, visit Night Train @ Last.fm. To play a song, click the round play button next to its name.
Nitty Gritty (Reference Section)
Recorded December 15 and 16, 1962. Line-up: Oscar Peterson (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums).
Personal Connections
I chose this album on recommendation from Greg, a drummer-friend of mine. Rumor has it that at some point in our playing together, I burnt Greg a copy of this CD, gave it to him, and said “play like this”. I hadn’t remembered that story until Greg reminded me, but it seems plausible enough.
For me, this album brings me back to my jazz listening at the end of my freshman year and start of my sophomore year of college, when I was listening to a lot of Oscar Peterson. At that time, I also learned Ray Brown’s bass solo from the song Night Train. It was the first jazz bass solo that I had ever learned note-for-note. It is still one of the finest bass solos I know of.
Overview of the Music
Often times, to remind students to play simply, jazz teachers will tell beginning soloists not to play 10 notes where 1 will suffice. Oscar Peterson always stands out to me for playing 100 notes where 1 would’ve done just fine (in the bebop tradition, I suppose). No teacher would find fault in his playing though, as he is able to maintain extreme simplicity despite the quantity of notes he chooses. For me, he does so in two ways. First, he maintains a very delicate and controlled touch on the keyboard. Each note is placed with precision and care. Secondly, O.P. is constantly aware of the longer line or phrase that he is creating. He never gets bogged down in the smaller notes that he is playing, which serve merely as detail. In this way, his playing reminds me of the famous Jan Van Eyck painting, “The Arnolfini Wedding”.
The Arnolfini Wedding by Jan Van Eyck
At first glance, this painting looks like a simple and elegant scene. However, closer inspection reveals the painstaking detail present in the rendering. For instance, take a look at he detail of the clothing and the dog fur. To top things off, Van Eyck paints a mirror at the back of the room. In the reflection in the mirror, the entire scene is recreated. Like O.P.’s playing, there is far more detail in this painting than is necessary, but none of it steals focus or reads as extravagant (okay, maybe a little in the painting, but rarely ever in O.P.’s playing).
Remind yourself for a moment that this album was recorded in 1962. At this time, a lot of jazz was trying to push boundaries (as discussed last week), or to look for increasingly mathematical and abstract ways of viewing things (one example that comes to mind is John Coltrane’s study of Nicolos Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, from which he was learning about complex musical constructions with names like sesquiquadritone progressions and infra-inter-ultrapolation). Oscar Peterson’s playing, however, is as simple and pure as anything. His goal seems to be to make music that feels good. His playing takes a huge influence from the blues, and all of his lines can easily be sung (okay, you might have to leave out a few notes here and there, but their arches are extremely clear).
Specifics To Listen For
My favorite songs on the album are My Heart Belongs To Daddy, C-Jam Blues, and Night Train. For beginners to jazz, Georgia On My Mind might be a good place to start, as it’s probably a tune most are familiar with.
For folks new to jazz who still feel a bit uncomfortable listening to long jazz solos, Oscar Peterson’s solos are well worth taking a shot at. They have a very clear logic and are really easy to follow. If you choose any song on this album and spend a few moments concentrating on it, listening to the solos with attention, I promise that you will rarely (if ever) get lost.
One of my favorite things about Oscar Peterson’s playing is the way that he is able to drum up a lot of energy very simply. He pays a lot of attention to textures, creating at times a very thin and sparse sound, and at other times a very thick sound. There are two devices worth listening for to hear how he creates a thick sound, energizing the band. The first is a pianistic technique called “locked-hands” playing. Most often, you’ll hear O.P. playing chords with his left hand and a solo line with his right hand. In contrast to this style, locked-hands playing refers to the use of thick chords with both hands moving together and a melody on top of the chord. An example of this is on the song Band Call. He switches into locked-hands style at around 2:25 and continues fairly strictly until the end of the song. Notice during the ending how he has a sort of call and response between locked-hands and more traditional solo playing. He plays a phrase in locked-hands, then responds with a fill in just his right hand. The opening of Volare also employs locked-hands playing.
The second technique that O.P. uses to drum up energy is called tremolo. This is when a pianist rapidly alternates between two or more notes, in imitation of tremolo bowing on a stringed instrument. A dramatic example of this approach can be heard on Hymn To Freedom, beginning around 3:45 and continuing (building) until around 4:25. He uses this tremolo effect in smaller doses frequently for a little bit of emphasis (because a piano is a percussion instrument, it can’t hold a note for a long time like a singer or violinist, so tremolo is often used to lengthen a note). A brief example very characteristic of O.P.’s style can be heard on the song Night Train at around 3:37.
I just want to mention the bass playing on this album. The bassist, Ray Brown, was a longtime collaborator with Oscar Peterson, although he also played with a huge number of other musicians (Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, etc.). Some of you may remember him as the bassist on Sonny Rollins’ album Way Out West. He is one of my favorite bassists to listen to because his walking basslines tell incredible stories. At (almost) any point on this album, I can happily tune out the other musicians and listen just to Ray Brown and still feel satisfied. Even when he is simply playing an accompanimental role, he constructs long lines with very satisfying melodic shape to them.
A highlight for me is Ray Brown’s playing at the beginning of Easy Does It. He opens the track in beautiful counterpoint to the piano. Here, the melody of the song is pretty static, so it almost feels as if Ray Brown’s part is the true melody. The two parts together, though, really create something delicate and special (and Ray Brown knows he got it right, as he plays with the same idea on successive repetitions of the melody).
Well, that’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading, and be sure to leave your impression of the album in the comment section!
Dan
Thanks for the overview, and the shout-out, Dan.