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Zwee Dot with Kelly Sill
Zwee Dot with Kelly Sill
Date Posted: March 08 2011
Written By: Kelly Sill
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Zwee Dot!
How Chicago musician and educator Kelly Sill hears jazz music
“In The Wee Small Hours
Of The Morning”
Boneyard
Origin Records – 2007
Jim McNeely – Piano
Kelly Sill – Bass
Joel Spencer – Drums
00:00 And the cut starts––a simple
statement, and then Mac is
using the whole piano.
00:18 It’s very lush and simple at the
same time.
00:29 Gorgeous voicings.
00:36 Mac is really taking his time.
00:50 He alluded to the time, and
then went back to rubato.
00:56 Now he’s in time.
01:02 ...except he is in a key one
whole step down from where he
just was.
01:05 Now we’re all in.
01:13 The melody. He’s still down a
whole step, although the
melody is where he was in the
first place––two keys at once.
01:25 Weighty, but pensive.
01:43 The ambiguity of two different
keys simultaneously.
01:56 Taking our time.
02:08 Nice figure.
02:14 False cadence to the key down a
whole step.
02:28 Staying there for a bit.
02:50 Back to the tune in the lower key.
03:07 Nice melodic developmentacross the grain of the chord changes.
03:18 Final resolution in the lower key.
03:25 And now back to the original key; it’s like the sun coming out!
03:34 This has a joyous feel.
03:39 Playing the blues!
03:57 It feels like we can go into four,but we don’t.
04:10 C major has an open sound to it.
04:20 Now we’re back to the flatter key.
04:27 A little floaty for a while.
04:30 Now the bass solo.
04:37 They make it easy for me to take my time.
04:47 They’re laying down a nice cushion, so it’s easy for me to play a bunch of triplet stuff.
05:01 They are adding nice little details that complement the bass really well.
05:11 That was a long phrase.
05:21 Sounds like I’m winding down.
05:27 Joel agrees; he’s helping me get out.
05:33 And now the Mac is back in soloing.
05:40 He’s back to C major, the sharper key.
05:50 Here also it feels like we’re going to go into four. But we don’t.
06:03 I’m surprised that we didn’t.
06:17 ...though there is a lot going on in this section.
06:24 And now Mac is winding down.
06:28 And again back to the flatter key.
06:38 And the recap.
06:45 Simply and nicely put.
07:08 Very tender.
07:21 There is nothing there that doesn’t need to be there.
07:32 Beautiful figure!
07:40 Now we are right back where we were in the beginning.
07:52 We’re just letting it sit there.
08:04 Waiting for the ending to suggest itself.
08:08 And there it is.
08:11 We end up in B major, a very sharp key.
08:15 I’m glad that cut exists.
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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