A solo rendition of Strayhorn's Blood Count

[joelf]

Daunting, to say the least---it's so personal!

(Stan Getz said 'You can hear the man talking to God '.

Yes, the piece is harrowing and I just approached it from my own ethos, whatever that may be...

Log into Facebook | Facebook

[mr. beaumont]

I saw on FB first, but worth a comment here too...what a fucking heavy tune...been trying this one for years...I won't post my rendition here as to not derail things, but I'd love to compare notes...

[joelf]

I won't post my rendition here as to not derail things, but I'd love to compare notes...

And I wouldn't---with the Maestro or Stan Getz's very deep rendition (Pure Getz, Concord, 1982).

Getz famously said of Blood Count 'You can hear the man talking to God'. He didn't live much longer---talk about heavy.

I'll never know what was in his soul, but I can at least bring out the sadness with certain chords and darkness of tone. Also, I'm at the age wherein I've already seen many friends leave to 'join the ancestors'. So I do sort of 'got a right to sing the blues'.

Hope I did OK with it cuz I plan to record and perform Blood Count the rest of my days. 'Heavy' is part of life and of artistic honesty...

[joelf]

Just listened to Getz's version---which inspired me to take the song on in the 1st place.

When he gets to that high concert E, it's just throbbing with passion. That's b/c he's using wind in an air column, with intense vibrato. As guitar players endeavoring to simulate that column (which has always been my approach, as well as that of guitarists I most admire) the options available to us are: bend that E, which in an otherwise chorded solo guitar version might sound out of place or strained; a hand tremolo; octaves, also tremoloed a la Wes with the thumb---though sudden octaves in a solo rendition are also risky, unless the chord is 1st stated. That's about it.

I just held that G6 up high and let it ring. Going forward, if I do this solo again I'd add that thumb tremolo. With a rhythm section (or even in duet w/bass) I could do either the octave thing (tremoloing that) or the bend thing.

They have what they have. We got what we got---and can make it work...

[supersoul]

You had mentioned Lush Life in another post, and so I had found the sheet music to download from an Aebersold book. But when I went to print it out I accidentally printed out Blood Count instead. To which I thought, "With a title like that it's gotta be good."

And then you go and play it!

I've been playing thru it. Don't really know the tune, unfortunately. But just playing thru it as written, yeah, I agree, it's heavy.

[joelf]

...yeah, I agree, it's heavy.

And hard to pull off on guitar. It kinda takes guts and real self-belief to tackle a song that was written as a feature for Johnny Hodges in the Ellington band*---not to mention by a composer in a hospital room with 1 month to live. Imagine the emotion he put into the piece---and how much must be dug up by the performer. You have to dig deep! No one wants to think about dying, so they mostly leave songs like this alone. I can try b/c, sorry to say, I can mine the memories of great people in my life who are gone, and too soon. And I do perform in a hospital regularly for the very sick. I had a bout of illness myself last year (all's cool now). Sadness is part of life and we shouldn't run from using it in art. If we did there'd be no Guernica.

And Strayhorns intervals! A bitch! I'm sure glad it's at least a ballad!

*(I actually learned it from Stan Getz's version TBH. I even stole his a capella phrase near the ending, and am keeping it in. It's perfection).

But, to get back to musical bricks and mortars, as I stated earlier we don't have an air column to sing out the melody like those guys, but with a little smarts and tweaking we can bring it out in ways that will sound close enough. I always hear a flugelhorn sound so I go for that in fullness and darkness of sound, choice of pickup and coloration of notes in single string improvising. In presenting a ballad like this chordally you would use more thumb vibrato on the chords, and spell the chords with octaves and maybe single string work.

I wrote my own lead sheet off a Strayhorn piano book, tweaked a few harmonies I prefered and basically went for it. I by no means have it down, as is evidenced by a few glitches, like playing a false start on that 1st D minor section and sorta lousing up 2 notes (C# and D before the E 13) at the climax of the melody. But not too bad for a 1st try, especially since I only wrote that sheet and shedded it a little yesterday, right before I did a live video. It's fair to say that that took some guts, but anyway for all my many flaws I've never lacked for those. And I can always practice it.

BTW I'm not the 1st jazz guitarist to try to tackle Blood Count. John Hart recorded it at least 25-30 years ago. It's on a CD of which I've forgotten the title. He gave it to me when we both lived in the NY area and were tight. If it's still available please get it. He's a great player...

[joelf]

The dimension of Strayhorn's genius just hit me: the key signature is one flat, b flat, indicating F or D minor. But he goes to the parallel major of D---not F, for that chromatic sequence (F# F E D F#, ect.). Then at the end that G major to G minor 6 (I used C9 #11) is clearly in D, so the tune is in a sense bitonal. What a mind!

He did something not quite similar but equally interesting in Daydream: Starts in F, then weirdly goes to the relative minor of D minor, with the unrelated chords A half-diminished to E 9 #11 A7 #5 first---then a complete sharp left to the parellel minor, F minor, then back to the mother key, F.

Totally unique mind on that guy, and I don't think he's been surpassed by anyone yet---at least not in jazz composition...

[joelf]

Here's my lead sheet. I recommend magnifying it to at least 105%. (Had to write small to get it all in on 1 page)...

Corrected some booboos. 1st one is correct)...


(blood count2_20240118_0001.pdf

[joelf]

I give up!! I corrected the E to Eb, 4th measure, and the 1st ending in the right place (5th measure) and scanned it, saved it under a different name---and I keep getting the wrong 1st copy uploaded. A true pain in the ass, it's late and I hate computers.

Sorry about this, but the 2 charts below are not the corrected ones. If you decide to print this out please take some white out and make the above corrections.

(Ah, I should've listened to mom and continued as a gentleman bank robber)...

[pcjazz]

Peter Bernstein has a lovely solo guitar version on Heart’s Content?.

[grahambop]

Peter Bernstein has a lovely solo guitar version on Heart’s Content?.

Here it is:

[grahambop]

It’s a great tune, I once worked out a version on guitar but haven’t played it for ages, I might have a chart for it somewhere.

Incidentally, Howard Alden has also recorded it solo:

[joelf]

You guys are being kinda rude. If you’re not gonna comment on my rendition at least don’t shove my friends’ down my throat on MY thread!!

The height of insensitivity: geez.,.

[joelf]

I saw on FB first, but worth a comment here too...what a fucking heavy tune...been trying this one for years...I won't post my rendition here as to not derail things, but I'd love to compare notes...

I’m deleting it Jeff, and taking my marbles and leaving this mothetfucker. You can find me on FB or PM me for my #. But I’ve had more than enough of this joint, and I don’t mean you, and social media generally,

I’ll be back ONLY to announce my yt channel-which I sincerely hope at least a few of you will support. With that green stuff…

[Cunamara]

Daunting, to say the least---it's so personal!

(Stan Getz said 'You can hear the man talking to God '.

Yes, the piece is harrowing and I just approached it from my own ethos, whatever that may be...

Log into Facebook | Facebook

lots of feeling, there, Joel! And I particularly liked the way that you voiced the final very dark, gravitational cadence.

[grahambop]

I’m deleting it Jeff, and taking my marbles and leaving this mothetfucker. You can find me on FB or PM me for my #. But I’ve had more than enough of this joint, and I don’t mean you, and social media generally,

I’ll be back ONLY to announce my yt channel-which I sincerely hope at least a few of you will support. With that green stuff…

You should have posted your video on youtube and put the youtube link here, I can guarantee you that would have got your video lots more attention. Youtube works for everybody and it embeds the video here.

Posting facebook links here just doesn’t work for a lot of people.

I’ve managed to get into fb and see your video now - it sounds very good to me. One tip though - try and make your guitar visible in the video (or at least the left hand), people do like to see what you are doing on the guitar (it would also probably help generate more discussion.)