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Zwee Dot! with Kelly Sill
Zwee Dot! with Kelly Sill
Date Posted: July 25 2010
Written By: Kelly Sill
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Sometime in the mid-eighties, Joel Spencer and I toured as two-thirds of the Hank Jones Trio. Hank embodied eloquence, as a performer, as a musician and as a person. Playing with him was always a refined, powerful experience. Joel and I found that by understating things, we gave him the freedom that he needed. I chose this cut as a good way to present Hank.
The Trio––“Re-Union” (Chiaroscuro Records – 1977)
Hank Jones – piano
Milt Hinton – bass
Bobby Rosengarden – drums
The song that I picked is basically a rhythm tune (32 bars, AABA), but is quirky. There is ambiguity in both the melodic rhythm, which makes the phrases sound like they’re starting in different places, and also the harmonies, mostly unexpected turnarounds in related keys. This is very typical Hank Jones.
0:01 What a wonderful soft touch.
0:07 It’s so understated, he whispers some of the notes.
0:16 This is a typical Hank bebop tune.
0:23 They’re playing this nicely.
0:35 A rhythm bridge with lots of substitutes.
0:41 And the last eight sounded like it started somewhere else harmonically, but it didn’t.
0:51 The phrases make the last beat of some bars (beat four) sound like beat one of the next bar.
0:54 Hank’s line unfolds beautifully, and Milt is playing longer notes, which he sometimes does (i.e.,
the duration).
0:56 And dig how even Milt’s eighth-notes are.
0:59 Even Hank’s eighth-notes are more even.
1:08 Always eloquent.
1:24 This is sitting nicely.
1:49 Hank takes advantage of the chord changes, playing exotic melodies, all within the chord structure. He’s always sitting comfortably on the time.
1:56 Bobby and Milt are doing a great job of accompanying him.
2:01 Hank is always whimsical.
2:08 He has more chops than he lets on.
2:20 Really nice interaction.
2:33 They’re all sitting comfortably.
2:45 Hank plays clichés wonderfully, as if they are no big deal.
2:49 Now Milt plays.
3:00 He’s playing with just one finger––he gets a good feel.
3:09 Hank is a beautiful accompanist––I always enjoyed him performing with me.
3:20 Milt is playing bass lines now, transitioning out of his solo.
3:27 And now we’re back to the head.
3:34 This is all very delicate, which is really Hank in a nutshell.
3:48 This to me sounds more focused than the in-head.
3:59 Now it feels that they’re getting the tune better.
4:09 Ah, they’re playing it (the last phrase) three times.
4:14 And ending on an unresolved cadence––and that would be like Hank.
P.S. Hank is the only one I’ve ever known who plays “A Child is Born” as a 32-bar tune––his brother Thad wrote it as a 30-bar tune!
Bassist Kelly Sill once gave an explanation of what he calls the “god-essence” moments in jazz—those moments that transcend the music itself and form a spiritual connection between the artist and the listener. As a particular example of this, Sill notes that on a live recording of “Stella By Starlight” an audience member squeals with joy when Miles Davis plays two simple notes—zwee dot!—on his trumpet. The name “Zwee dot!” stuck, and is now the name of his column. Sill uses classic jazz cuts to share his “listening” with us.
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