Preserving The Fire - Implementing the jazz language of Woody Shaw

T. D. Nobel

This artistic research addresses the intellectual legacy of jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw, with the main purpose of implementing his jazz language into that of my own, without losing my musical authenticity, in order to add a more modern sound to my bebop-oriented jazz language. It demonstrates how experiments result in the creation of a new method for designing musical patterns, combining two (or more) tonal modes with symmetrical aspects of the music of classical composer Bela Bartok; a method I call Cross-Symmetric Approach (CSA). Following this CSA-method, eight patterns were constructed in order to support taking (hence: playing) structured steps beyond the borders of functional harmony, in the spirit of Woody Shaw. Due to the extended practice of both these eight CSA-patterns as well as numerous constructed exercises involving perfect fourth intervals in order to support the open and modern sound the patterns create, it is my goal to demonstrate that I can preserve the ‘fire’ of Shaw’s legacy without literally copying his jazz language. The newly gained vocabulary widely extended my possibilities for approaching chord changes and stretched my definition of harmonic consonance

Intervention Cycle #1

Reference recording #1

Pattern C II-V-I

Jazz phrasing 128bpm

Sing outside patterns

Intervention Cycle #2

Reference recording #3

Example 1a-1c:

Example 2:

Example 5:

Example 8a:

Example 8g-8i:

Pattern #1 at 58bpm:

Pattern #3 on Abmaj7#11:

Intervention Cycle #3

Reference recording #5

Pattern #1 mode C - bars 3-4

Pattern #3 modified

Pattern #5 mode G - bars 8-1

Application practice exercise #1

Application practice exercise #2

Application practice exercise #3

Bill Adam Routine

Pattern #2 mode Bb - bars 5-6

Pattern #4 mode G - bars 1-3

Pattern #7 mode G - bars 2-3

Pattern C at 100bpm

Singing pattern A

Example 1d:

Example 3:

Example 7a:

Example 8b:

Example 8j:

Pattern #2 at 58bpm:

Perfect Fourth Ex.5 at 106bpm:

Reference recording #2

Reference recording #4

Reference recording #6

Pattern #3 mode Bb - bars 11-12

Pattern #4 mode G - bars 2-3

Pattern #8 mode G - bars 11-12

Jazz phrasing 86bpm

Pattern F at 78bpm

Maximum Mastery - phrasing

Example 1e:

Example 4:

Example 7b:

Example 8c-8f:

Pattern #3 at 78bpm:

Perfect Fourth Ex.9 at 58bpm:

Tip

Tip