0:06 [Music]
0:10 that's the intro of the song that we're
0:11 gonna be looking today at my little
0:15 score study thing here and so for those
0:17 of you new to the series my name is Drew
0:20 Zaremba and the arrangers facebook page
0:22 nominated me as their Ranger of the
0:24 month and they asked me to walk through
0:27 a couple of my scores so without being
0:29 too narcissistic here we're gonna take a
0:31 look at this chart of mine called
0:33 kangaroo bruised blues the story behind
0:35 it and some of the we'll look through
0:38 the score together and tell you I'll
0:39 tell you what I was thinking at
0:41 different times during the chart so
0:45 thanks for your interest and let's move
0:49 over to the main scene thanks OBS these
0:51 aren't high quality videos as far as
0:53 video production but hopefully they are
0:55 entertaining and useful for what they
0:58 are for we give the lag if there is only
1:02 on the screen so before you before we go
1:04 any further I recommend you listen to it
1:06 you can just check it out here
1:09 soundcloud.com my site and kangaroo
1:13 bruise blues it is a long chart but it's
1:17 a lot of solos - blues for solos so we
1:19 got to record this with Toshi clinches
1:22 big band he's an amazing arranger who
1:24 now lives in Australia but he asked me
1:26 to supply a couple tracks for the album
1:31 so here we are and so here we are
1:33 kangaroo bruise blues I like to say here
1:37 we are a lot the story behind it if you
1:46 listen to the head that sort of thing
1:49 it's kind of similar to another blues
1:51 head and that's because this actually
2:04 started as an arrangement of mumbles by
2:08 Clark Terry this was written for the
2:11 Carmen Caruso international trumpet
2:13 competition and
2:16 and Clark Terry had recently passed and
2:19 the judges were Ingrid Jensen Bobby Shue
2:23 and clay Jenkins and there was another
2:26 trumpet featured on this chart the Denis
2:30 Dotson of Houston and so they asked me
2:33 to arrange mumbles to feature these four
2:36 trumpeters so I was like oh my goodness
2:40 how how is this gonna work and I
2:42 immediately thought okay well it's a
2:45 blues so there's a lot of flexibility
2:49 there and that means it could be treated
2:51 a number of different ways the Blues as
2:53 we know is very flexible and so I
2:56 thought okay perfect we can just have
3:00 these four amazing soloists featured in
3:03 their own limelight and then they'll do
3:05 some trading and all that stuff so but
3:07 you know in as in that will change the
3:10 chart as it conforms to the personality
3:16 of the soloist and so that's basically
3:18 how the chart was born and then after
3:19 and I'll walk you through that part
3:21 rather than explain all of them now and
3:23 then I want it to be able to sell the
3:25 chart and play it a lot and so I just
3:28 modified that melody and a couple of the
3:30 other parts so that way it would work
3:34 together as an original composition all
3:37 the respect and love to Clark Terry but
3:38 I didn't want to have to deal with all
3:40 the publishing and and copyright
3:44 rigmarole so this is now kangaroo bruise
3:46 blues because it was recorded on Toshi's
3:48 album and kangaroo bruise blues just
3:50 sounds like a great chart title if I had
3:52 to retitle it it would be retitled like
3:54 study on the blues
3:55 but that just sounds so much more
4:01 academic so this is more fun and yeah so
4:02 traditional big band with an optional
4:06 vibraphone part here and 12 good old
4:08 twelve bar blues four bar intro I do
4:11 like that intro I like I like trumpets
4:15 and I like fourths and I blue be modern
4:19 saxophone counter lines I love this is
4:21 Thad Jones more or less upper structure
4:25 triads dumb lots of Dominic lots of
4:28 dominant passing chords down here
4:31 generally typical voicings and octave
4:34 octaves and thus axes and we come down
4:36 immediately to a small group some people
4:38 might say oh why not start with a in two
4:40 head well it is walking the entire time
4:42 but there are enough other textures in
4:43 the tune and I just want this thing to
4:46 be swinging from the get-go so we are in
4:49 four we are walking and we are and
4:51 there's gangbusters right out of the
4:56 gate so small group melody here alto
4:59 tenor trumpet and trombone with the alto
5:03 ideally with the vibraphone introducing
5:05 our four soloists when it was a trumpet
5:08 feature it was all four trumpets playing
5:14 the melody mumbles and and now but I
5:17 adapted it for a big band so that way
5:18 you don't need for extra trumpet
5:23 soloists and so it's within the band
5:25 so splitting up between different
5:27 timbres bone trumpet rhythm and
5:33 saxophone so little that's this is how
5:34 we get to our small group melody here
5:36 the choice that's why how I made that
5:38 choice a lot of groups don't have
5:42 vibraphone so alto becomes the soloist
5:49 to help carry that and then we have the
5:51 second time through the melody this
5:53 these bars are moving pretty quick so
5:55 I'm not trying to change too much too
6:01 often because time is going by as just a
6:04 the bars are moving by quickly but time
6:08 is still the same and so you know even
6:09 if it looks like there might not be a
6:11 lot happening on the page it's only
6:13 occupying a few seconds so I'm not
6:15 afraid of a lot of rests at this
6:19 particular moment and we have just a
6:21 good old block voicing in the saxophones
6:29 here unison counter lining the bones [Music]
6:36 this whole section is leading to another
6:39 shout chorus moment but it's short-lived
6:41 we move immediately on to one of my
6:44 favorite textures from bill Holman and
6:46 many others of course but bill home and
6:48 did it most famously which is three part
6:51 counterpoint where I'm just seeking to
6:53 have as much rhythmic and harmonic
6:56 balance between the three parts as much
7:00 as possible and so even though it looks
7:01 like there's not a lot happening here
7:03 but the saxophones are taking over
7:08 so contrapuntal writing is one of my
7:10 favorite things to do
7:13 even though not a lot of the time I get
7:16 to use it but it's just a great
7:18 technique that I think is underused in
7:22 big band writing especially more swing
7:26 kind of charts so there's balance for
7:28 everything this is a score study not a
7:30 teach not a pedagogical thing drew shut
7:35 up so a little cannon effect here with
7:38 while a descending bass line sustains
7:41 interest and we this whole contrapuntal
7:45 section culminates here in this moment
7:50 here the homophonic climax as it were
7:53 good old upper structures upper
8:00 structure trumpets over the trombones
8:06 covering the 37:13 bass trombone in the
8:10 depths where he or she belongs and we
8:13 and that leads to a nice send-off to our
8:17 first soloist the viber phones and
8:21 guitar if no fiber phone so there we
8:25 have it we're on to the first solo and I
8:28 leave it open for them as long as they
8:31 want to go backgrounds we bring in the
8:34 second time the last two times cueing a
8:36 new section rather than making everyone
8:38 confused and saying oh let's do e the
8:41 last time but not the first time I I
8:43 can't deal with all that
8:45 so just new section we can always print
8:48 more music and always
8:50 print more pages it's worth it for the
8:53 clarity of the musicians and we layer it
8:57 in this is kind of stolen from Oliver
9:08 trombones providing some kicks of a
9:12 second time and then we get to 13 of my
9:15 favorite bars in the piece this is Thad
9:18 Jones technique 101 I said this a lot of
9:20 this chart comes out of fad and
9:23 naturally out of John Clayton two of my
9:27 favorite composers ever and arrangers
9:38 almost entire it's basically the
9:42 pentatonic scale with a blue note so
9:46 that's what that is but the harmony is
9:49 all of these dominant chords [Music]
9:53 [Music]
9:59 sorry so that is the approach they're
10:02 descending baseline moving in contrary
10:05 motion with the melody always a recipe
10:06 for success
10:09 and what are the saxophones doing well
10:11 they're playing a bunch of notes as they
10:13 darn well should be I am a saxophone
10:16 player and so I always want to write
10:18 myself some fun lines and make everyone
10:23 else curse at me so this is just some
10:26 core once I established the harmony then
10:27 I wrote the counter line to connect
10:32 through all of those changes so
10:35 repetition is your friend so we do
10:37 almost the exact same phrase here but
10:39 different harmonies because it's blues
10:41 and it's the new part of the harmony and
10:43 we want it every part to lead into the
10:47 other and then we are going into one
10:49 more climactic phrase I just really
10:51 didn't feel like 12 bars was enough we
10:54 arrived at this climax and this moment I
10:57 felt like needed to be bigger and so I
10:59 just wit I said it needs another bar oh
11:01 why not
11:05 stretch it out we are often too confined
11:08 by form and so I try to break that down
11:11 when I can it serves the music it serves
11:14 let the melody sir let the phrase serve
11:17 the melody the phrase length that is not
11:18 the other way around there's sometimes
11:20 you got a fees squeeze it in
11:24 but it's my chart so I can do all sorts
11:28 of things and so this sets up for oh and
11:31 write the soloists so this was Dennis
11:33 Dodson's original part and it was just
11:36 the normal blues a nice place to start
11:39 and build from right and then we get to
11:44 the mumbles in Clark Terry would often
11:45 do a stop time in the middle of his solo
11:47 and so I thought this would be a great
11:49 way to start the solo of the trombone in
11:54 this case Bobby Shue and just as a new
11:56 texture we've been listening to swing
11:58 for a long time now let's break it up
12:02 with some stop time and directly came
12:04 out of mumbles although it might be
12:05 something I just do normally on a blues
12:11 works really well and then we start to
12:14 it's just one beat every two bars on
12:16 beat one keep it real simple
12:19 and then we embellish it a little more
12:22 in our second chorus de bois duh
12:26 you know it's just a lot of traditional
12:31 blues writing here Alou a few more hits
12:33 so that way we communicate to the
12:34 listener that things are changing things
12:38 are evolving and we move ahead and a
12:41 break that leads to another send off and
12:47 walking voila and a toy because the
12:49 leads we got it gotta feed the lead
12:51 trumpet player some red meat every once
12:56 in a while and so here we are
12:58 the soloist continues continues blowing
13:02 and I think this was just a fun I you
13:03 know we're still in sort of traditional
13:05 blues here and so I thought keep the
13:07 backgrounds bluesy you don't get too
13:10 modern don't get too crazy plungers came
13:15 to mind Wow Wow Charleston right this is
13:20 kind of where this all came from and
13:21 then they're done with their solo and
13:24 between each soloist I put a 12 bar
13:28 interlude because it gives the listener
13:30 a chance to appreciate the soloist and
13:31 wonder oh what's going to come next
13:34 and I get to express myself a little bit
13:37 in terms of the writing to connect some
13:40 of the this material together and let me
13:48 take a solo the writer right do dodo a
13:53 lot of chromaticism here I'm just trying
13:54 to what I'm trying to do is transition
13:56 us to Ingrid Jensen's
14:00 solo part which is a double blues with
14:02 all 13 chords [Music]
14:12 and so that's she's known for her modern
14:14 playing she can play just about anything
14:18 really but this is a kind of Ingrid
14:20 changes and when she saw them she's like
14:24 oh you went all Ingrid on it and that
14:25 really touched me
14:30 so she's just an amazing person and an
14:34 amazing musician very fortunate to get
14:36 to write for her and another piece
14:38 coming but that's for another time
14:43 so I'm in this transition here I am
14:45 starting to lengthen the phrases in
14:48 order so that the transition into the
14:50 double sus Blues feels natural
14:54 so these b-flat 13s us starting to set
14:55 that up
14:57 whoo that's that's where that sort of
15:00 ideas comes from repeating the idea of
15:02 the saxophones in the rhythm section to
15:03 signal that we're bringing it down
15:06 decrescendos of course all around the
15:10 trumpets are out so and then we get to
15:13 our sauce blues double blues which just
15:15 gives so much more flexibility and
15:18 options to the improviser to play on
15:20 they can take it out a lot more because
15:22 now I'm controlling the copping -
15:24 there's a little birdie outside my
15:29 window hello and the yes so I'm
15:32 controlling the comping now so they're
15:34 always gonna get the same thing so it's
15:35 really up to the soloists to make things happen
15:37 happen
15:39 telling the drummer mostly cymbals
15:41 transparent yada yada yada we get
15:43 through our first blues and we bring in
15:46 some backgrounds and I don't want to get
15:49 in the way the soloist so this is a
15:51 softer section and we still want to grow
15:55 so I do cut mutes bucket mutes and I
15:59 tell the Saxons you better play soft so
16:01 that's where this idea comes from and
16:03 then we still have this you know pads
16:06 essentially I'm orchestrating the rhythm
16:07 section now in the saxophones and the
16:10 trumpets Harmon mutes fun for that and I
16:12 have a little counter line in the bones
16:15 and later the barre in order to just
16:16 have a little
16:18 motion through it so it's not completely
16:23 barren yeah this was this is a fun
16:27 little texture whenever I can I want to
16:31 use mutes and and other things like that
16:33 it seems like I've frozen if I can fix
16:42 it quickly I will and yeah so all right
16:44 I think we're back sorry about that
16:48 and so yeah whenever I can try to fix
16:52 the texture I do so fix the texture when
16:54 I change the texture big band is a bunch
16:56 of horns you know the saxophones are
16:59 horns and so if I can get new colors
17:01 other interesting things going on in
17:08 there then that's what I can do yeah
17:11 sorry about the frozen video there I'm
17:15 gonna keep trudging on and another
17:17 send-off but this time we're coming down
17:20 rather than a big send-off because of
17:23 the sensitivity of the section previous
17:27 so here we go a little more backgrounds
17:29 and finally one more transition and I'm
17:33 starting to get not bored of E flat but
17:35 it's starting to feel a little stale it
17:36 feels like we've explored a lot in E
17:40 flat and so I and B flat is another both
17:42 be flat and B flat are great keys for
17:45 the trumpet to improvise in ice open
17:48 keys very flexible and so I think I said
17:50 alright it's time for a modulation this
17:53 is a long tune and so going to different
17:57 key centers is welcome so here we go
18:04 with a little couple seconds and which
18:06 completely cleanses the palate oh what's
18:09 happening what's gonna what's going on
18:12 that's the fun part of this so and then
18:14 a little saxophone solely we go to
18:16 soprano here to get a little extra range
18:27 blah blah blah and you know taking the
18:29 pressure off the trumpets all the whole
18:31 time passing it between the sections so
18:33 that way the trumpets don't yell at me
18:35 too much more than they already do
18:39 anyways and so finally we arrive at clay
18:45 Jenkins solo section and so I thought ah
18:49 he's known for his abstract playing and
18:52 he can play really out you can also he
18:53 can all these trumpet players can do
18:55 anything they wanted to but I wanted to
18:57 kind of capture a little bit of their
19:00 essence and what they're known for and
19:03 what I assume they enjoy doing so I
19:05 thought why not break the whole thing
19:08 down at the time it was rich to Rosa my
19:10 old mentor and teacher for many years
19:13 who's gonna play drums and so I knew he
19:14 and rich would have a great chemistry
19:16 and and make something happen
19:21 and so I decided to go with this very
19:22 barren texture that would bring the
19:25 whole thing down a breakdown of sorts
19:28 and from here it would develop and go
19:30 crazy out from here on out
19:34 and so in it also I changed the changes
19:37 we harmonize the blues and another
19:42 alteration so whereas before it was sus
19:48 I think it as a warm color you know like
19:51 a big hug and then this is more angular
19:55 because of all these major sevenths
19:58 present in the voicing and so that's
20:01 going to be more aggressive and just by
20:04 simply working here
20:07 it's more open there's fewer movements
20:11 it's not quite modal it's still tonal
20:15 but it is has a much different flavor in
20:18 a more open feel because of that and
20:20 rather than backgrounds just let the
20:25 rhythm section comp freely for clay and
20:28 really nice and open here so that's kind
20:33 of the philosophy of the chart here and
20:35 how I was able to create a structure out
20:38 of it going up and down doing different
20:42 things so that is that and now it's time
20:45 to wrap things up of course after four
20:47 trumpet solos we have to make them fight
20:51 each other as per the international jazz
20:56 treaties command it so here we are with
21:00 a bunch of trading so as is common the
21:01 band will take four bars and then we'll
21:03 trade so fives
21:05 then the trombone in the same order that
21:08 they so load in four more bars for the
21:12 band then trumpet and tenor and then we
21:15 let them go crazy trading force for four
21:18 choruses which means everyone gets to
21:20 play three times and we lay our
21:22 backgrounds on top as is very typical
21:28 for this style building in to a raucous
21:30 shout chorus that actually comes down
21:34 before it comes up again what am I
21:35 thinking here I'm just thinking about
21:40 moving out in harp in contrary motion
21:48 bass moving down trumpet moves up Alka
21:50 tonic scale as it happens as it so
21:54 happens and many different chords
21:56 happening there these are some Duke
21:58 Ellington chords why do I say that
22:00 because they are a alot of saxophones
22:03 orchestrated very high actually
22:04 everyone's kind of in a very high
22:06 register there's not a lot of bottom to
22:08 this voice voicing that was intentional
22:11 there actually might not be a third and
22:13 a there might not be a third in this
22:15 voicing which was another intentional
22:17 move oh there is but it's very
22:20 orchestrated very high and because I
22:23 wanted something more abstract and just
22:26 because we're about to get to some
22:27 really thick voicings and so I wanted
22:31 something different to build in tension
22:34 and I just want to experiment I'm always
22:35 trying to experiment and learn this this
22:37 chart was written for that's three four
22:43 years ago four years ago yep so more
22:47 contrary motion and then this is one of
22:59 my I stole this from Dave Brubeck it's
23:01 just a contrary motion again but this
23:02 time the Germans are coming down
23:04 basement was moving up and it's just triads
23:06 triads
23:14 so that's pretty fun sorry anyways that
23:18 is he did it in one of his pieces and I
23:19 just thought that is a really cool
23:20 texture how cool would that sound with
23:25 big band pretty cool so and then to
23:27 break it up a little
23:31 unis encounter unison brass leading back
23:34 into our head out with a little surprise
23:38 here little two four bar that I kind of
23:41 regret writing the band's usually mess
23:44 it up because it's like how do you do
23:46 that after like ten minutes of making
23:49 you know crazy great music and then the
23:51 arranger decides to screw it up with
23:53 them but it's part of the humour of the
23:56 piece and so I really wanted to like oh
23:58 is it over is it over is it over no it's
24:04 not so and then we finally have a good
24:07 old fat Jones ending splat Black Flag
24:12 and the last chord is basically the last
24:14 chord of three and one I think I might
24:18 have changed one or two things but it's
24:21 just such a perfect ending to a blues or
24:27 a bluesy song so that is kangaroo bruise
24:32 I hope you dug it thank you for
24:35 listening hope this was insightful and I
24:38 didn't drown drawing on too long [Music]
24:40 [Music]
24:41 thanks for watching if you dug it please
24:43 consider liking and subscribing and all
24:45 that good stuff there's a lot of other
24:48 music on the YouTube channel so I hope
24:50 you have a chance to check that out have
24:52 a beautiful day and we'll talk to you
