I’d like to continue looking at some of Paul Desmond’s recorded output today, expanding on the ideas in the last article. We discussed Paul’s use of sequential phrases over sometimes extended stretches of a tune, superimposing a Bach-like structure over standard chord changes. Here is another from early on, in 1954, live with the Brubeck quartet, this is “Stardust.”

 

I love the relaxed, listening feeling on this track. Particularly relevant to our discussion is this spot at about 45 seconds in, where Desmond uses this descending pattern, but adapts it to some really interesting scales and harmonic content before resolving to the top of the second half of the tune, then Brubeck provides a new motif, that Paul takes and moves through the tune.

 

Paul Desmond Stardust Example 1

 

If we were to simplify this pattern, or put it in one key, we would end up with this:

A nice pattern! Maybe I will have to put together a book of Desmond Shapes. Paul has taken this basic structure, and adapted to a C7#11, lydian dominant type sound in the second and third measures, but note how he keeps the F natural to E resolution on the 3rd beat of the second measure, as it is simply better melodicism than using the F# there. He then returns to the #11 sound until the F7, where he returns to the tonic scale, before slipping down to an Ab in the last measure, catching the flatted fifth of the Dm7b5, and then a strong C harmonic minor scale to resolve beautifully on the first beat of the next section. The solo continues after this early theme, with Desmond constantly reworking small fragments in creative ways.

These are the types of patterns in my book, so I’d like to reverse engineer an example from one of the Bach Shapes in the book. Let’s take Shape Number 5, which I took from the Second Violin Partita:

 

 

Then let’s try and put this over the opening 8 bars to “Ladybird.”

 

 

Note how I altered the placement of the phrase, especially since it is a 3-beat pattern originally. The main point is that you must do whatever you have to to make the phrase work in a musical way through the tune. They will not work as is, in most cases anyway. But for me, this method has provided a whole new way to play through tunes, besides of course doing similar variations on the original melody, and becoming familiar with the original harmony as much as possible before trying this.

This reminds me of my good friend, bassist Putter Smith, another master of this type of playing. We were lucky to have him in town these past few days, and I can only marvel at his ability to take a small motif through a tune in so many unexpected ways.

I would like to do one more post on this next week, in Part 3. In later years Paul Desmond still used this type of material, but in more subtle ways. We will look at his solos on”Tangerine,” and “Winter Song.”