Here’s a simplified and analyzed notation of the head in: Lesson #2: Be able to play unaccompanied improvised melodies and clearly outline the chord changes.Īt the end of the head in (and the beginning of Bill’s full-blown solo), the drummer (Paul Motian) drops out completely and the bassist (Scott LaFaro) starts playing in “broken” time, freely switching between playing whole notes, half notes, and walking quarter-note lines. Since the piano lacks the ability to shape long held notes, he shortens some of the melody’s held-out notes and adds melodic fills.Īlso note how he creates balance and variety by contrasting his relatively busy playing on the A sections by playing a simplified, stripped-down version of the bridge. Most likely he’s trying to deal with the fact that the piano lacks the same power as a voice or horn in its ability to sustain long notes. It’s almost like he’s commenting on or responding to the melody in real time as it unfolds.Īdditionally, sometimes he holds on the longer notes of the melody, whereas at other moments he plays them crisp and short. His fills create a kind of call and response between his improvisations and the original melody. So, Bill starts improvising during the head in by decorating the melody with bebop-esque surrounding tones and melodic fills during the gaps between phrases. “What is this Thing Called Love” has a relatively simple and repetitive melody with lots of space in between phrases. The first things that struck me about Bill’s approach to “What is this Thing Called Love” are how freely he interprets the melody and how much he improvises before his full-blown solo choruses begin. Lesson #1: You don’t always have to wait for your “solo” to start improvising. Here’s the recording so you can listen along: So, for the sake of brevity, I’ve distilled the analysis down to 3 major takeaways from Bill’s approach to playing “ What is this Thing Called Love.” It would require thousands of words to properly analyze the entire solo because there are so many great musical ideas packed into a few choruses. I learned improvisational strategies from this transcription that I still use regularly to this day. Bill Evans’s 1959 recording of “What is this Thing Called Love” from Portrait in Jazz was one of the first solos I transcribed as a jazz major in college.
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