[Dixielandjazz] Chord simplification question

[Andrew Homzy]

As a composer, arranger, pianist, bassist, tubaist,

It is clear to me: The bass plays the fundamentals and the other instruments play the extensions.

Inversions are rarely used in jazz -

That said, going beyond basic function, the bass line can also have an over-arching melodic shape. Paul Chambers was great at this - so was Bach, Beethoven & Brahms.

In my arrangements, I always write bass lines when the full ensemble plays. Who better than me knows what bass notes and shape of line needs to be played?

Cheers,

Andrew Homzy
180 Pirates Lane
Nanaimo, BC
V9R 6R1

250-667-0238

> On Fri, Jan 16, 2015, at 1:40 PM, Augustine Daniel <ds.augustine at utexas.edu> wrote:
> 
> Ken (c: DJML)--
>    Ever since i started reading leadsheets, the naming of chords has occasionally been problematic for me as a tuba player.  If the chord in the original song is a C-E-G-Bb-Db and the C is in the bass, calling it an E-chord makes me play what to me is the 3rd of the chord and sounds wrong to me.
>    The piano player in my band and i sometimes disagree on what the chord is (or should be named), as he is a big-band and cocktail-piano player, and i'm a tuba player who has never played that kind of music.  I don't (can't) do substitution-chords.
>    Glad your bass-player can figure out by ear what note to play, but on an unfamiliar song -- or on a song i've played for years that somebody's put 9th and 11th-notes into -- i'm lost as to what note to play.
> 
>    Dan