Diz and Getz - A Venture into Bebop

1/16/11 – Diz and Getz (Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz)

If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterwards.
- Joe Pass

Bebop has never been my favorite branch of the tree of jazz.  As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m a ballad lover at heart, and there’s not much room for the gentile ballad in a style based around burning fast riffs and breakneck licks.  I can appreciate the skill and talent of the artists spewing forth these musical tongue twisters, and know that their out of my league both as a pianist and a vocalist, but on some level, I maintain that I don’t calculate my proficiency on a scale of notes per second.

That being said, there’s a certain musicianship these two embody that I don’t always get from hard bop players.  (Ditto regarding their killer rhythm section, by the way.)  The opening all too familiar tune, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing” embodies that sense of artistry often lacking.  While ironically their interpretation doesn’t swing especially hard, it has elements of that same frenetic energy the earlier Duke Ellington charts had; an in-your-face aggressiveness that lends a certain sense of urgency into the unsung lyrics of the tune.  “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” laid back a bit into a bit of an easier groove, where Dizzy’s trumpet at times takes on a deep south New Orleans Dixieland tune, throwing eccentric descants all over in an unbridled, somewhat carefree environment.

Stan’s tenor sax work takes more of a back seat more often that not, no doubt in part due to just the nature of their instruments’ respective volumes.  In the third track, however, the aptly named “Exactly Like You,” there is ample solos to go around, featuring not just Diz and Getz, but Max Roach on drums, Oscar Peterson’s piano, and Ray Brown on upright bass.  Herb Ellis will still have to wait for his turn a couple more tracks, but it’s worth the wait. J

“It’s the Talk of the Town” delivers the first real ballad of the album, with a bright toned yet mellow phrased statement of the tune by Gillespie followed by a much warmer turn from Getz’s bleeding saxophone.  Even the faster bop lines seem softer, like a stream of consciousness opportunity to finish a thought after getting lost in the sentimental statements beginning the same thought.  It’s more “coherent” than a lot of bebop playing comes across to me.

It’s interesting to note that of all the tracks on this particular album, there is but one piece written by each of the headliners.  Gillespie’s “Impromptu” is just that – a basic 12 bar blues framework for the band to jam out on.  Again, everyone takes a turn at the wheel, including the rhythm section (including Ellis this time.)  Following that is Stan Getz’s original tune, “One Alone.”  A lighthearted easy swing number, the melody seems to flow sweetly from Dizzy’s horn while Getz lays down a simple open harmony a sixth or so below.  Both of them blow through the tune, Gillespie first, then Stan, and play with the same “smart bebop” phrase style as the earlier tracks.  The following “Girl of My Dreams” is the only real sleeper on the CD.  Stylistically it seems to simply be more of the same; nothing bad per se, just nothing new either.

The final track, however, is the real jewel of the album I think.  “Siboney (Parts 1&2)” switch gears into a straight-ahead bass and guitar groove completely different from what has gone before.  When the piano eventually comes in, there’s a bit of Latin coming through, but the opening riff reminds me of “The House of Marcus Lyecus” in Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum.”  The syncopation is very “cool jazz,” while the tonality plays around with an almost Eastern sound.  After a statement of the motif, it breaks again into a fast bebop riff-fest, but returns not to shortly and falls right back into the pocket.  Incredible.  Part 2 opens with a more Afro-Cuban sound, no doubt Stan Getz’s input on an album dominated by Dizzy and his stylistic tendencies.  Then again, for the final 45 seconds the track returns to that same opening groove.  If you listen to one track on this album, make it the first one – it’s a truer sense of the album as a whole.  If you listen to two, though, make this one the next choice.  You can thank me later.

Tomorrow – Takemitsu: A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden

Next week – Jaco Pastorius