Transitions
Published: Fri, 07/21/23
But the other half has to do with the things that made Transitions so viscerally appealing on first listen. To start with, it's a pianoless quartet – Remler, Eddie Gomez on bass, Bob Moses on drums, and trumpeter John D'Earth – which allows the guitar to play a central role in the rhythm section. Second, Remler's taste in material is stellar and off the beaten path – a little-covered Ellington tune, "Searchin'"(as far as I can tell, based on the McCoy Tyner version), "Coral," a Keith Jarrett ballad, and bassist Sam Jones' "Del Sasser," a burning nod to Remler's hard-bop roots. Finally, these are balanced with three original compositions, each of which makes creative and compelling use of the complete quartet while exploring new ways to think about the guitar's role in said quartet.
Meanwhile, leafing through John Corbett's highly entertaining Vinyl Freak earlier this week, I learned about Gloria Coleman and Pola Roberts' 1963 Impulse! LP Soul Sisters. Fortunately, that album has also been digitally reissued. In addition to Coleman's Hammond B-3, it features Leo Wright on alto saxophone and prime-era Grant Green on guitar, on a program of nearly all blues-based material. In fact, the opening cut, "Que Baby" (dedicated to the late tenor player and Blue Note A&R man Ike Quebec) leads off with four churning choruses of Green to rival anything in his massive Blue Note catalogue, and Wright is no slouch in the bebop department either. (Side note: if you took part in my recent "Reliable Source" workshop Bebop For Beginners, Soul Sisters is as good a place as any to hear many of the ideas we discussed being put to use in solo after solo throughout the record.)
As a soloist, Coleman is from the lean and groovy school, but when the tempos rise, her B-3 bass lines definitely take on a "wait, how is she doing that and soloing at the same time?" quality. The ensembles feature satisfyingly tight unison lines with guitar and/or alto, and as an accompanist Coleman favors succinct, tasteful riffing, leaving plenty of space for Roberts to drive things ever forward with a flow of chattering, conversational drumming. Everything breathes even as it grooves, and like the Remler album, half the pleasure is in the balance and integration of the quartet itself.
Of course, if you play solo guitar, you are the ensemble – as Beethoven supposedly remarked, hearing the guitar is like viewing an orchestra through the wrong end of a telescope. Or perhaps, in these more modern times, a jazz quartet or honky-tonk band. If you play blues in the steady-bass style, it might be a stretch to aim for a Gloria Coleman-level of bass independence, but there are definitely a few simple things you can do to profoundly up your game in the bass line department. That's what I talk about in this week's Youtube lesson, which you can find at the link below:
Add Bass Lines And Blues Licks To Your Steady Bass Groove
More soon,
David
The Fingerstyle Five membership provides ongoing, organized, on-demand lessons for fingerstyle guitarists who want to improvise on the blues. Visit fretboardconfidential.com to learn more and sign up.