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SwingJournal #13
Empathy
Artist : Bill Evans and Shelly Mannbr>
Original Recorded Date : August 14th, 1962
Original Label : Verve Records
Producer : Creed Taylor
Engineer : Rudy van Gelder
Empathy :
The Washington Twist : "The Washington Twist" was written by Irving Berlin and it is the 12 bar blues in the key of C. Originally Berlin wrote this composition as a swing tune. On the intro, the drummer Shelly Manne and the pianist Bill Evans start with interesting latin style motif accents while the bassist Monty Budwig keeps "4 and 1" rhythm patterns. It reminds me the famous composition called "The Sidewinder" by trumpeter, Lee Morgan. On Morgan's "The Sidewinder", a drummer Billy Higgins' solid boogaloo beats made the groove so remarkable. On the other hand, on "The Washington Twist" the drummer Shelly Manne plays very freely without locking-in to the bassist. Therefore Evans plays solos quite differently throughout this recording compared to his work with Miles Davis Quintet/Sextet. After Evan's solo, he returns to the motif patterns while Budwig is playing his solo with deep warm tones. After Budwig's solo, the trio plays head-out melody. Despite it ends naturally after the melody, Evans keeps playing motif figures and Manne's crazy drum solo stars. Then they play head-out melody again but this time they fade out.
Danny Boy : This is one of the most beautiful Bill Evans' ballad works in his life. Evans starts playing the melody in the key of Bb by himself rubato and from the middle of the chorus Budwig accompanies Evans. They modulate thee key from Bb to G, and Manne comes in with very laid back beat.
Audio File
Download Sheet Music for Bill Evans's "Danny Boy"
Solo Guitar Arrangement/Performance by Hideaki Tokunaga
Let's Go Back to the Waltz : Many great jazz artists recognize Bill Evans' talent especially when he plays the waltz. Miles Davis' "Someday My Price will Come" is the good example and "Tenderly" from Evan's old trio is another example. You can listen to the single bass note pedal by Bugwig along with Evan's intro on "Let's Go Back to the Waltz". Also Mann uses his brushes on this entire composition. The first solo is taken care by Bugwig. Because Mann and Bugwig were Los Angeles based musicians, Mann is usually a leader of many bands. When Mann received a recording deal from Verve, he decided to record with Bill Evans in East Coast despite of Evan's recording engagement with Riverside Records. Mann had to have Budwig's musical support for this recording and it worked very well. After Budwig's solo, the trio changes their time from 3/4 to 4/4 swing. Brush accompaniment for Evan's by Mann is outstanding and keeps Evan's drummers' tradition from Philly Joe Jones, Paul Motian to Joe LaBarbera. Toward the end of chorus, they smoothly return from 4/4 to waltz and they conclude the head-out melody, just like the tile "Let's Go Back to the Waltz" .
With a Song in My Heart : Budwig and Mann start playing the 16 bars intro in G7 chord without the piano, then Evans suddenly comes in with block-chord melody. Before Evans joined Miles Davis Group, Miles had Red Garland on the piano. Red Garland is also well-known for his block-chord melody/solos. The difference between these two pianists is Red Garland is more toward thickness of harmony, and I also interpret his harmony concept is strongly influenced by Ahmad Jamal. On the other hand, Bill Evans' block chord concepts is more toward cluster sounds and he puts the chords in non traditional locations like Thelonius Monk. We are always fascinated to see Evans' and Garland's traditions between block-chords to single notes. Again the first solo goes to Budwig, and the way Evans lays-out and accompanies Budwig is incredible. You can also enjoy the way Evans accompanies himself with his left hand. After Evan's striking solo, Mann is featured for free time solo. He uses brushes through the entire composition. After they finished ensemble performance, you can listen to spontaneous Evans' solo piano, Mann starts responding to the Evan's cadenza. Then Evans starts playing the melody again wittingly and becomes duet with Mann. Mann occasionally uses brushes but he maybe uses his hand to hit his drum set to have more percussive effect.
Goodbye : Budwig and Mann start playing the 16 bars intro in G7 chord without the piano, then Evans I consider that this is a walking ballad piece of this Bill Evans trio. But Budwig keeps holding whole note feel on each bar. Mann keeps double time feel so it sounds like it is walking even though Budwig is not walking on walking ballad. Evans play very dark layback block-chords melodies and solos against unique rhythm that Budwig and Mann create.
I Believe in You : Budwig plays two notes descending lines by himself as if it is a warm up exercise without tempo. Budwig plays the same descending line again, this time Mann responds with cymbals. Suddenly Evans starts playing the three pick up notes, and trio starts playing the melody in tempo. Again Mann uses brushes. The composition is AABA form and Evans occasionally stops the end of sections and gets listeners attention to his cadenza. With the same three pick up notes, listeners now notice that these three notes are wake up call for Budwig and Mann to join in tempo with swing feel. After they play one chorus melody, Evans starts playing solo on section AA, on section B Budwig plays solo and Evans dictate ensemble to ritardando. It was very short bass solo because Evans plays the three notes again for the wake up call and Evans starts playing solo on last A section. On top of the chorus, Evans keeps playing solos and when he reaches B section, he starts playing head-out melody. What a fantastic concepts this is! Each time you listen to the end of A section, the ensemble hits funny accents as if this composition was written in waltz. At the end of this composition, the ensemble repeats this waltz feel section over and over. Then listeners can finding the secret code while the ensemble is looping this section, the secret code is the descending bass line of Budwig which we heard at the beginning.
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