Let's settle Wes's "Cariba" once and for all

[grahambop]

Incidentally the transcriptions don’t quite agree on what happens with the voicings when Wes goes to the V chord (F7). I might check that bit too.

Actually I might write out my version of the whole head, maybe including Johnny Griffin’s countermelody, that would be interesting.

[ragman1]

I don’t understand what you are on about.

Neither do I. Sorry, I'm being a nuisance, it's been a funny day probably.

Okay, it's D, probably played x5656x, melody on top. No prob.

Thank god that's over. And the OP's happy with the answer.

Thank you, Graham, you've been patient.

[sgcim]

The key signature in the Real Book is wrong. That leads you to believe it's in Fm, but as everyone has said, it's a Bb blues. Wes confused the Real Book writer by having the bass player always play an F on the first beat instead of a Bb.
Wes was fascinated with this idea of making a dom.7th chord a ii V, and making you think that the ii chord is the tonic, but he also would use a variation on that idea in a song like "Four on Six" by making the tonic minor chord a ii V.
Again, the Real Book gets the key signature wrong by putting it in C for some reason. Then he starts the tune off by having the bass player play a Gm7 C7 bass line (G-D-C-G), which Wes plays an octave higher.
They take that pattern through Cm, Bbm, Am, then Ebm which takes us back to Gm totally confusing us the first time we hear it. It sounds like a total Wes original instead of a contrafact on the tune Summertime, which is what it is. Then he plays the melody to 4 on 6 with the bass and piano playing that same bass line
I was the one who first pointed this out on RMMGJ many moons ago, but those clowns started claiming credit for it.LOL! I was writing a solo arr. of Summertime, and came up with these same changes, but
he first developed this idea on Montgomeryland, when he used this bass line for the song Summertime itself.
He kept using the first way he used it on other songs he wrote, such as "Tear it Down" where he took a Honeysuckle Rose type progression, and made it into a repeated series of Cm11 B7b5 chords (two beats a piece) instead of the typical way of playing a progression like this. He further made this old progression sound new by breaking up the time by
his use of stop chorus syncopated chords.

[grahambop]

Also reminds me of the way he plays ‘Unit 7’, i.e. alternates Gm7 and C7 at the beginning. I used to think it was in Gm but later realised it’s sort of a blues using C7 (I hadn’t seen a chart of it back then).

[Reg]

Yea... just checking out thread... always loved tune. The Sig is just really about notation... there are more Db's than D naturals in head. Not saying it's right. I transcribed music and did copy work back in the early 70's.. for shitty $. If you went to Berklee.... you probably read through some of my BB transcriptions LOL

I mean... anyone playing the tune would know it's just a Blues... right. I was lucky to have been at that show, my guitar teacher took me.... it was a coffee hang. The thing I remember most was Griffin... and was cool to be at a live recording session... although it did make me a total Wes fan and probable help me get my shit together as a kid. I started playing gigs not that long after LOL.

I haven't played the tune in a while but remember simple more in position versions...

X 5 6 5 6 X
X 8 6 8 9 X
X x 6 7 8 8

Yea 2nd voicing is probably wrong...

I would guess the melody could and was played voiced differently... isn't that what playing jazz is about.

Although I think I'll call this tune at one of my gigs over weekend... Thanks

Yea just have to also say... griffin's solo's on Blues N Boogie are still some of my favorite solos ever

[djg]

I was lucky to have been at that show, my guitar teacher took me.... it was a coffee hang.

not too shabby for a kid who had just turned 9 years old

[pamosmusic]

not too shabby for a kid who had just turned 9 years old

I was there too. I remember the coffee.

[grahambop]

One of the best jazz gigs I have ever seen was Johnny Griffin at Ronnie Scotts, he was like an explosion channeled through a saxophone, so much energy and swing. But also really soulful and with a lovely old-school tone on a ballad.

I read his biography and it was cool to know that somehow he went from growing up in Chicago, to living in a chateau in France!

[mr. beaumont]

The little giant, they called him. Fitting. Definitely in my top 5 tenors.

[sgcim]

I was there too. I remember the coffee.

Yeah, there were two guys there playing guitar and sax there, but that coffee was something special!

[pamosmusic]

I was there too. I remember the coffee.

To be clear, I’m joking.

I’m 32.

[sgcim]

To be clear, I’m joking.

I’m 32.

Duh.

[grahambop]

Well wikipedia does say the Tsubo club served no alcohol and allowed minors.

Pretty sure I wasn’t there though, I think I would have remembered it even as a toddler.

[pamosmusic]

Well wikipedia does say the Tsubo club served no alcohol and allowed minors.

Pretty sure I wasn’t there though, I think I would have remembered it even as a toddler.

I feel I was there in spirit.

[ragman1]

When I was 32 I was in Paris. I definitely remember the coffee. Black, mostly, in breakfast bowls with croissants. They like wide bowls so you can get your croissant in :-)

And the buskers.

[grahambop]

After careful listening to a slowed-down WAV file taken from the CD, here's my transcription of the head, including the tenor sax (in concert pitch) and bass parts. (The TAB interpretation is how I play it.)

Paul Chambers makes a couple of slight variations in the bass part on the repeat but they don’t add much, so I didn’t write all that out again.

I agreed with Steve Khan's transcription except where I make it D under the Bb9 chord and G under the Eb9 chord. Also he missed out the accidental (on A flat) in a few places, which I have corrected.

[ragman1]

Looks pretty good. I'm all right now!

[jackalGreen]

Just want to say thanks for all the input.

Of course I was right! Never doubted it! (Secret guild of musician handshake: "Of course it's what happened! I played it didn't I?")

And shout out double thumbs up to @grahambop for the chart. Yeah, that is what I have as well. Although for playing at tempo, I drop the lowest note...three note chords is about my limit at the fingerboard for where I'm at, while comping at tempo and covering the melody.

I still think of the head arrangement as an Fm blues, with the 11 added as always a very choice tone on the tonic, and blowing changes just blues in Bb, but it really doesn't matter IMHO what one calls it. And as several people have noted, somebody like Pat Martino would maybe use the natural minor/aeolian and "minorize" over the changes.

But that's a whole nother smoke. Anyway, it's just a blues, of course, but those thick chords Wes lays down are another thing.

[grahambop]

Thanks, also it’s worth noting that Paul Chambers adds to the ‘Bb or Fm’ ambiguity by emphasising F in his bass line in the first 4 bars, but sticking with Eb in bars 5 and 6.