Paul Chambers, Walking Bass & Miles Davis' "So What" - WARNING: Jazz Theory Inside!
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- Опубликовано: 26 янв 2025
- I break down PC's harmonic approach to walking bass on Miles Davis' tune, "So What".
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So What's opening bassline and walking line is based on Bohemia After Dark by Oscar Pettiford. Studying Bohemia After Dark will help to understand Chambers' bassline even better -- OP was his hero. Pettiford even wrote a response to So What -- entitled Why Not? That's What!
I seen a interview with Jimmy Heath and he said that Miles told him that every musician that was not in his band played so what wrong because there was no chords. Just the white keys on the piano and the bridge was the black keys. Mind blowingly simple right.
@@GARRY3754 Why "these days"?
@@winstonoboogie6317 because everyone overcomplicates everything
What an absolutely brilliant analysis, Danny. Thanks so much for sharing! Serious Respect to you!
I appreciate it, Chris. Thank you sir!
@@danjocastro I enjoy this video, I am a bassist myself. I am a Double Bass/ Electric bassist, Paul Chambers was a brilliant man, and there will EVER be another one like him. He died the year before I was born, I didn't discover him until I was in my 20's. He was a tragic loss to the world 😭, extremely sad how his life ended. His cousin was Doug Watkins the bassist for the Jazz Messenger, tragically he was killed in 1962 in an automobile accident. You should do video on his cousin Doug Watkins, and comparison videos of Paul Chambers and his cousin style.
Appreciate the analysis on a deep topic. When you had the piano play the implied chords, it reminded me a bit of the Sound Marcus Roberts and Veal had.
Great stuff, more of this kind of interesting walking analysis please!
Thanks so much Danny.
Modal jazz,,,to neutralize tonality, but still speak to it,using dom 7s,I think ur right in this listen, the half step is the cadence, this is actually sophisticated stuff,using only two chords ,classic cuts,great video 👍
Finally !
I'm glad a bass player finally said it !
I like your analysis! Your analysis is very good, and very meaningful!
Ok, now that “try to scam the teacher” approach didn’t work for me, yeah I like what you showed here. I’ll have to apply that to my triad pairs approach the next time I play this.
Not bad,I'm also hearing (in the song) MD going into Em7 and Fm7 over the Dm7/Ebm7,the whole thing is very interesting, but I think u might be right about this,because these guys are master class ,and these are good reasons why modal jazz is special, it give everyone more liberties, with the suspension of tonality, great analysis mate,👍
What an awesome video!
When I see those analysis I always questioned if He was really conscious of this when he created that line or he just played what he was felling? I think he was giving a shit about what the theory behind what how as doing, however I love to be able to understand what is happening lol.
Very nice video by the way.
Thanks, that blew up for me. never thought of it that way.
I'm convinced that we jazz guys like to talk about this stuff to show off how much we know...🤣
yet there's always someone who feels it is bragging while in other expressions of art and science the same concept of sharing one's own mastery of the craft is often viewed as a humble thing to do instead of bragging
Great analysis
Frigggin' awsome breakdown!
Very interesting analysis. Makes sense.
E natural in ms 8 might be leading back to Dm7 by implying 5th of A7 ?
Definitely could be.
Very nice!
The E natural at the end of the Ebm7 sound to me like a subV of Ebm7, like this note makes a lot of sense when going out of a Bb7alt.
I think they were in a mood of just let the chords come from nowhere, so this also makes sense to me, like "I'm leading to an Ebm7, but watch out, here's the Dm7".
Letting the chords come from nowhere… 🤔 The E natural being a tritone sub for Bb7 actually makes a lot of sense to me. I hear the modulation from the Ebm tonal center to the Dm tonal center as being very direct. Chords from nowhere, you might be right!
@@danjocastroNice! 🙌🏼🙏🏼
2:05 I just see that as blues scale.
Hey Danny! Just stumbled on this. My 2 cents - PC is thinking of the bridge as Db major rather than Eb minor. In the first measure of the bridge you can think of those first 2 quarter notes as approaching the Db (tonic) on beat 3. That's what it sounds like to me. Cheers, man.
Hey Rob. Glad the vid made it your way. Thanks for checking it out!
Killer stuff man!
Hey Oscar, I appreciate it. Glad someone dug it!
Nice. If you look at the other bridges, there's more. I think he emphasizes an Ab7 at one point.
The other way (or more precisely, one of many other ways) to consider some of what you are hearing here is simple triad movement. Eb- to F major triad, then simply move thru the upper extensions of those. Yes it can be considered a simplification, but it helps get beginners to play appropriate choices.
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Thanks Adam! Glad you dug the video
Two!
And another!
Me too!
Which version did you transcribe? Those are not the notes he plays in his walking bassline, during Miles' solo from the original 1959 studio album Kind of Blue.
Subscribed! Great video. Pardon my ignorance but why exactly would the V of Ebm7 need a flattened 9th? I've recently started getting into jazz theory and I didn't understand that part of your video. Thanks.
Great question, Alex. Minor harmony is less straight forward than major harmony. I'm going to assume that you understand how a major V to I works; chords built from the I and V of the major scale. When we switch to minor, we recalibrate our I to be vi. So now vi is i, viiø is iiø, I is III, ii is iv, iii is v, etc.. So in minor, instead of V going to I we get v going to i with the parent scale of v being Phrygian and the parent scale of i being Aeolian. The Phrygian scale has the b9 in it. From this perspective, the real question isn't why the V of Ebm7 has a b9 in it, it's why it has a major third in it! So why does it have a major 3rd in it? Because we copy paste it in from major harmony to provide us with the leading tone. It gets deeper but that is the first level of the answer to your question.
I hope that makes sense. Thanks for the great question!
@@danjocastro Great, thank you for your swift reply!
sometimes I just think that they don't really think about all this theory as its not a very musical approach, and really just have good ears, and go with whatever sounds good in the moment, is it just me?
Yeah, I can see why one might feel this way. Other folks in the comments have expressed similar sentiments. To play devil’s advocate I would ask, why is it so hard to believe that these guys knew what they were doing? Miles Davis studied at Juilliard. Bill Evans was a composition major. Paul Chambers studied with orchestra players and played classical music. And that’s not to belittle the education they got from playing and conversing with all of the great musicians of their time. So I guess it’s possible they didn’t think about the theory but it doesn’t seem hard to believe that they did. Thanks for your comment, Kith! ✌️
@@danjocastro I'm pretty sure they had access to all this knowledge, but in a playing or improvisational setting isn't it encouraged that you don't think and just listen?
I believe it is and was not a matter of intellectual thinking as opposed to chromatic and approach notes via the Blues. So-called Bebop scales or mapping out a vamp in Ebmin using passing tones are tried and true movements that were and are passed as a language whether the artist is schooled or not. The more you gather, the better. Miles said he learned more on 52nd St. than at Juilliard .. Word Of Mouth works as well as a book..
Good stuff.
I'm sorry man but I think there is a mistake. Last note on 4th bar ( minute 2.38) is not a B, is a C. I've listened many times and saw lots of transcriptions. Is not a B, is a C. So is a major 9. On measure 6 we have, instead of Cb-C ; Bb-C. So is not a flat 7 of Db, is a major 6 and, well, this change everything. Where did you find the transcription?
I forgot: E natural on beat four of measure 8 is a diatonic approach to D-. He's sayin': I'm coming back to D-
Matt, I appreciate your thoughtful comment! That being said, I have to respectfully disagree on both counts. I just went back and listened again and I am still confident in my interpretation.
In measure 4 I clearly hear the minor third between the B and Ab. Even if the last note in that measure was a C I wouldn’t think of it as a major 9. It would just be a leading tone on beat 4 going to Db.
In measure 6 I’m still getting the Cb-C too. I think it’s why the C sounds like a C even though it’s one of the only notes here that doesn’t seem to have any real pitch information.
I didn’t find this transcription anywhere. I transcribed it from scratch. I double checked every note on the recording at 25% speed and up an octave.
Thanks again, Matt. And who knows, maybe I am wrong!
Miles told his musicians it was just the white and black keys. P.C. is just making sense of that with passing tones.
Maybe the E natural(bt 4, ms 8) is simply a leading tone implying a ii-V back to the d minor.......(but no, you're not talking crap here...)
Chambers’ scroll was a carved face, like a viola da gamba.
It's so cool
Corey likes
the recording from those sessions were all improv's ....
Parental Warning! - Explicit Learning
I think the the 4th beat of m. 8 is a shart Eb. I also think that the B naturals in m. 4 are flat C naturals. That would make m. 4 an allusion to Ab7 (the V of Db.).
So What...if your analysis is too deep.
Now you know.
WAY too much Theoretical trampoline.....i'm outta here...just LISEN admire and PLAY it..THAT'S why God gave us EARS. !!