Lage Lund licks!

I've been off the transcription horse for a while. This week I dusted off my hat and climbed back on.

I picked Lage Lund's recording of Darn that Dream from his Standards album because it is a very tasty example of guitar trio playing. (It also seems a pretty popular choice for transcription) I've been working a fair bit in guitar trios, and really like this line up. It can be pretty scary at first, but if you can get used to it offers a lot of unique freedoms.

Anyway, my general approach is to pick out one or two lines that really jump out and get those down, before working on the rest of the solo. I think being too linear about it can lead to blockages.

In general shape he kicks it off with a very cool little break, plays rather sparely for the first A, hits a sweet turnaround lick, gets a bit more busy through the second A and really starts to burn on the bridge with some long eight note lines and a virtuosic burst of triplets.... Not a bad template for a AABA solo... I transcribed first the break, then the turnaround lick at the end of the first A.

Line #1 Analysis 

Here is the first one - the break that sets up the solo.

 

There’s quite a lot going on here. Instead of the standard I-VI-II-V turnaround, both Lage and the bass player (Ben Street) opt for a Tadd Dameron turnaround, which in this key (G) is Gmaj7 Bb7 Ebmaj7 Ab7#11. Lage also uses some anticipation of the chords – both in his ‘comping’ parts but also in his solo line. Here, he anticipates the changes by up to a beat. In the second system I have written the chords over the lines in the way that I believe reflects where they are being expressed in Lage’s line.

Lage’s approach (at least at this time, 2007) is heavily triadic. The advantage of this to an improviser working without a chordal accompanist is that you can very clearly outline harmonic movement with relatively few notes, and often the effect will be clearer to the listener than if you use the typical seventh chords used in jazz education. In Lage’s case, many of these triads are used as superpositions or upper structures of other chords – or substitute progressions if you like.

The use of the G+ over the Gmaj7 obviously gives you a slightly more unusual Gmaj7+5 sound, but the use of the D+/Bb+ triad over Bb7 is straight out of Lester Young. The C minor/Eb major pentatonic unambiguously gives us the Eb chord and resolves smoothly in the D - the root of D7, or the #11 of the Ab7#11 . In fact the only odd thing is the way he resolves – not to the expected third of the Gmaj7, but to a #11 (a #4 really, given the register.) This adds a little twist to an otherwise predictable bebop phrase. It really only requires those two unusual notes – the D# in the G+ and the finishing C# to give this line its contemporary sound. I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest that this kind of subversion is very typical of Lage’s dry Scandy humour, expressed in music.

(We can also appreciate that Ebmaj7 Ab7#11 Gmaj7 is a substitute for Am7b5 D7b9 Gmaj7)

Line #2 Analysis

Lick 2 happens over a ii-V followed by the turnaround again.

The run up on the ii-V is clearly an ascending scale with a couple of added notes. It’s a little bit of a puzzle as to why these notes are added, and not the more common choices such as the D bebop dominant scale, but I have chosen to break it down as shown. I’m by no means convinced this is the best analysis.

The rest of the line is pretty obvious. Here, Lage spells out triads again over the Dameron turnaround. We have Gm over the Bb7 and Ebmaj7 chords, which against the bass gives an overall Bb6 and Ebmaj7 tonality respectively, and an Fm and Ab7 on the Ab7 chord giving an Ab13 sound with a classic bebop tinged chromatic enclosure into the root on beat 1… The whole thing is based on clear chord shapes – almost like a Charlie Christian lick! It represents a pretty vanilla expression of the turnaround, which I suppose goes to show how hip a progression it is that it sounds so modern…

Another interesting point is that Lage is completely unafraid to express the root of the chord as a point of resolution and also plays roots in the other chords as well - in contrast to the advice often given to jazz improvisers to avoid them.

The rhythm is tasty, too. I’ve beamed the notes in the analysis to reflect the groupings.

I’m looking forward to learning the rest of the solo. It’s clear to me already Lage at this stage had a deep grasp of the tradition as well as a very fresh modern sound.