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Zwee-Dot with Kelly Sill
Zwee-Dot with Kelly Sill
Date Posted: November 11 2009
Written By: Kelly Sill
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Bassist Kelly Sill recently 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. Zwee dot!, then, seems to be an apropos name for this column, as Sill uses classic jazz cuts to share his “listening” with us. In honor of the holiday season, we asked Sill to listen to John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.”
Time markers are placed next to the text to allow readers to follow along.
0:03 It starts out with big ones (accenting the first beat of every bar) in an easy vamp.
0:11 Now it’s a different vamp––this will be the vamp that they use throughout.
0:20 Trane comes in with the head. He’s playing it very straight.
0:25 Really quarter notes.
0:38 And now the vamp again as an interlude.
0:47 Trane again, basically playing a quarter-note melody.
1:03 Now to the major part, the vamp again in E major, now with Trane joining in.
1:26 And that’s a long vamp, it’s about eight bars longer than I expected it to be.
1:28 Trane again with a simple melody.
1:46 Back to E minor; this is where the bridge would be, but they actually don’t play the bridge on the in-head.
1:57 Trane goes right back to the top and, whoa, that was a flourish!
2:03 And the vamp again.
2:20 McCoy starts his solo, pretty much quoting the melody.
2:37 And a vamp.
2:45 Going up in the vamp.
2:53 Going up again in the vamp.
3:00 Back down.
3:10 And quoting the head again.
3:26 The E major vamp––staying on the vamp.
3:44 A simple note.
4:04 Toying with simplicity.
4:20 A slow development.
4:37 Staying in the mood.
4:54 Short repeated themes.
5:04 That was a weird clam. Not like McCoy!
5:08 He plays it again, this time correctly.
5:18 Another simple theme and variation.
5:30 This rhythm is pure McCoy.
5:45 So, most of the solo appears to be on the E major vamp.
6:00 I never noticed before how out-of-tune that is.
6:07 Interesting how he moves from the major to the minor with one pivot chord.
6:15 He quotes just eight bars of the melody.
6:18 Vamping again on the minor.
6:32 And now the vamp is just as it was in the beginning.
6:47 This time McCoy plays the melody.
7:03 Trane is in.
7:12 And now Trane is playing the melody.
7:25 It sounds to me like the piano, not the bass, is out of tune.
7:40 A long vamp for Trane.
8:06 It gives him a chance to blow.
8:28 Always nice, thematic development from Trane.
8:40 Beautiful––fast, weaving lines.
9:03 Even when he’s out of the key he always twists the line back in.
9:15 He’s always alluding to the actual tonality.
9:32 He’s getting sparser.
9:38 It sounds like he’s setting it down now.
9:45 And he was––here’s the head.
10:02 Blowing over the E major vamp.
10:17 Another long vamp.
10:29 Yeah, this is classic Trane!
10:44 It’s like crying.
11:13 Great melodic development.
11:41 Dig the flurries.
11:56 Now flurries and melodies
12:06 It sounds like he could do this for hours.
12:18 The out-head.
12:23 Still playing it very simply.
12:35 And here’s the bridge for the first time.
13:05 Steve Davis and Elvin, beautifully understated for the entire cut.
13:26 Ah, that was excellent.
13:40 Beautiful ending––they treat the end of the song with respect.
13:43 A true classic!
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