[Dixielandjazz] Bix's Solo

Sun Feb 4 07:28:56 PST 2007

rorel at aol.com wrote:
>   I am a big proponent of musical analysis. I have spent many hours pouring through scores analyzing them according to various different analytical schools of thought. You think this was overkill -- try doing this with a Mahler Symphony that lasts over an hour!
>  
>  The difference between that and this Bix analysis is that when i done, I come away understanding more about the music. By going through the details, you come away with a better grasp of the big pitcure. Mr. Arnold's analysis is detailed in the extreme but ultimately so narrow in its scope that is it sound and fury signifying nothing.
>  
>  Obviously every note in every piece of music has a relationship to the note before and after it as well as a relationship to the chord it inhabits. To list a catalog of "this is next to that, that is above this and is the fifth degree of the scale in A7 chord" tells us nothing. I pride myself on my ability to grasp a piece of music from its analysis, but if I didn't know this was a Beiderbecke solo, I probably would have guessed it was "Afternoon of a Faun". The best 'analysis' of Bix's playing, IMHO, remains a general comment by Dick Sudhalter in his liner notes for the three-volume TRAM! set on The Old Masters:
>  
>  "The cornetist's every recorded solo, regardless of length or setting, seems to communicate a range of identifiable emotions: a bittersweet yearning, a fresh, almost girlish innocence, even, though admittedly at a stretch, something foredoomed, more than a little fey."
>  
>  Gunther Schuller's analyses, peppered through his tomes, say much more about the music.
>  
>  Respectfully submitted,
>  
>  Ray Osnato
>     
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: robert at ringwald.com
>  To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>  Sent: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 10:39 PM
>  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Bix's Solo
>  
>   
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Stan Brager" <sbrager at socal.rr.com>
> To: "Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>; "DJML" 
> <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 7:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Bix's Solo
>
>
>   
>> While I'll take Jay Arnold's word for all of this, I don't think that this
>> is what Bix had in mind when it came time to play his solo.
>>
>> Bob, didn't you tell me one fine day long ago that this is the way you
>> worked out your solos???
>>     
>
>
>
> Naw. I just close my eyes & press a key.  I am always surprised at what 
> happens.
>
> --Bob Ringwald
>
>   
>> Stan
>> Stan Brager
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
>> To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 5:24 PM
>> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Bix's Solo
>>
>>
>>     
>>> Steve Barbone quotes Jay Arnold's analysis of Bix's 16 bar solo in "Krazy
>>> Kat": (1927).
>>>
>>> For example, this quote which is fairly typical of many in the book and
>>> quotes Jay Arnold's analysis of Bix's 16 bar solo in "Krazy Kat": (1927)
>>> "The third and fourth notes of measure 1 are the upper and lower neighbor
>>>       
>> of
>>     
>>> the root of the chord, which when reached has become the fifth of the G7
>>> chord of the second half of the measure. In measure 4, the dotted quarter
>>> note(D natural) is an anticipation of the seventh of the E7 of measure 5.
>>> However Bix has already left the note by the time the chord of which the 
>>> D
>>> is a part is sounded. The G natural is the Negroid (sic) lowered third,
>>>       
>> the
>>     
>>> F sharp used twice is the ninth. The construction in measure 6 is very
>>> ingenious. The E sharp is the lower neighbor of the thirteenth (F sharp)
>>> which follows it. G is the seventh of the chord, followed by a passing
>>>       
>> note
>>     
>>> leading to the root of the chord (A) which is not sounded until several
>>> notes later, giving the figure an element of suspense. The D is the
>>>       
>> eleventh
>>     
>>> of the A7 chord, the B is the ninth. At the end of the measure there is a
>>> restatement of the lower neighbor of the thirteenth and the thirteenth
>>> itself. The measures 7 and 8 are a break that is charming in its
>>>       
>> simplicity.
>>     
>>> In measure 9, E natural is the upper neighbor of the fifth of the G7
>>>       
>> chord.
>>     
>>> Measurers 10, 11, and 12 show a disregard for the ornamental harmony in
>>>       
>> the
>>     
>>> background. In measure 13, F is the upper neighbor of the chord root.
>>> Measures 14 and 15 also are independent of the background harmonies."
>>> (snip)
>>>
>>> Jesus, someone has much too much time on their hands...
>>>
>>>   --Bob Ringwald K6YBV
>>> 916/806-9551
>>> www.ringwald.com
>>> --
>>> Leader, The Fulton Street Jazz Band
>>> www.fultonstreetjazz.com
>>> --
>>> The Boondockers (jazz and Comedy)
>>> www.theboondockers.com
>>>
>>>  In the 60's, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is
>>> weird
>>> and people take Prozac to make it normal.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> All of the mentioned verbal autopsy of Bix's solo seems to have led to what might be called "Analysis paralysis." The pint is that the man played what he played for HIS reasons or emotions of the moment. No one can truly say what he thought. You cannot what it meant to him - you can say what it meant to you, so any analysis would best start with your emotions, not his. They guy sitting nest tyo you whe it is played may have a totally different take on this. So just listen and examine YOUR eotions to the music, not that of the long gone BIX.
>>     
One should recall the comment about explaining jazz. "If you got to ask 
you'll never understand it!"
> Don (I know what a cold day in Hell - A town in SE Michigan that's just as cold as North Michigan this week) Ingle (who has also been to Paradise (a small village in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan)which is colder than Hell today.
>
>
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