Desperate to find out what Russell did

[ginod]

Hello,

Since some weeks I try to figure out what Russell Malone thought while he played this line. It's a line out of his album Looks who's here in the tune "odd couple". An wonderful example for me how Russell play soft and soulful lines in combination with absolut crazy hip outside ideas to build big tension.

First I thought he worked with whole Tone scale, scale shifting. After that I tought it must be a kind of superimposition changes, because he use a lot of bigger intervals. At the moment I think it also could be some Melodic Cell ideas like Coltrane - but nothing fits really in this case.

Can anyone help and bringt light in the dark - what he may thought while he did this crazy stuff? Thank you in advanceDropbox - odd.mov - Simplify your life

[sgosnell]

He probably wasn't thinking of anything, just playing lines. I certainly can't read his mind now, much less back when he played that, but if I had to put money on it, I would put it on "nothing".

[grahambop]

He was probably thinking “I’m gonna play some crazy, weird outside stuff here so that people will wonder ‘what was he thinking?’”.

[rpjazzguitar]

wild guess.

Bar 4, first two beats, he thinks A7b9, but plays it with some jumps.

Then, he continues thinking diminished sounds with the same general shape (in terms of when he goes to to higher and lower notes). But, he's not sticking firmly to a rule.

It's impressive. The line holds together. I can't find an obvious fingering.

[Doctor Jeff]

Hello,

Since some weeks I try to figure out what Russell Malone thought while he played this line. It's a line out of his album Looks who's here in the tune "odd couple". An wonderful example for me how Russell play soft and soulful lines in combination with absolut crazy hip outside ideas to build big tension.

I think you hit the nail on the head. His jazz vocabulary is so large that he has so much stuff to pull from...he has a bunch of tried and true phrasings, and in between them can throw in some really unexpected stuff. That’s why he’s so enjoyable to listen to.

It's really helpful for you to post a YouTube of the recording you're referring to and a time marker specifying where the passage you're curious about starts. This kind of stuff is easier (for me at least) to find the context of a passage when I can hear the whole thing as it was played. But maybe that's just me as a listening based player.

So where do the notes you are curious about start?

I didn’t actually watch The Odd Couple all that much, being 12 or so at the time and preferring faster paced or at least more broadly written comedy like Sanford and Son and action shows like The Six Million Dollar Man. However, that song was iconic. Great theme song. And great performance by Russell. I hear those opening notes, and I’m transported into the early ‘70’s, not a bad time at all to be a kid. Certainly fewer worries than today...main concern was can I get my homework done in time to watch Kung Fu or Night Gallery??

[pauln]

The perky quirky parts I think he's using an "odd couple", or a combination of two techniques; one based on a knowledge of what the "right notes" might be, and a note set of strictly arbitrary fingering patterns. Sounds like he is using a mix of right notes and arbitrary notes, sort of phrase changing between a more inside and more outside mixture.

[ginod]

It's really helpful for you to post a YouTube of the recording you're referring to and a time marker specifying where the passage you're curious about starts. This kind of stuff is easier (for me at least) to find the context of a passage when I can hear the whole thing as it was played. But maybe that's just me as a listening based player.

So where do the notes you are curious about start?

I put the part als a video file link with dropbox under my text - you hear the written out line.

@All - I don't think that he really thought "nothing". Russell Malone do this stuff very often and to my ears it sounds really like a "concept" of playing. The line erase their tension each bar until it explode. If I go the way and say "let's play some weird stuff" I can't imitate this sound. For me it's not so much important of what he does theoretically, but more how I could be able to create a similar sound in my playing like him. At the moment I work on melodic cell concept like Coltrane and Brecker, tought by Chad LB Brown ebook. I'ts really cool and hip but it doesn't really fit in with what Russell did here.

[ginod]

I gave it a try again. Really listen carefully what the line sounds to me and I am pretty sure that bar 4 and 5 are a lot of Tritone Substitute stuff and lydian dominant scale. Very much Superimposition thinking. The first line really outline a A7 Chord which is the substitute for the Eb7. He also resolve to eb7, slip down to D7. From D7 he wants to outline Ab7#11 and resolves to Ebm6 on the f# as the third. Followed again by A7#11 Substitute which leads to the D7b5 (where he surely thought lydian Dominant). This release in C which is the maj7 of Dbmaj7.

So the harmic formulae could be

A7dim, Eb7, D7, Ab7#11, Ebm6, A7#11, D7#11, Dbmaj7