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Count Basie's Comping Style. Part II
by
Misha V. Stefanuk
Last month I have started talking about Count Basie's comping, this is a continuation of this discussion.
In 1939 recording of "Lester Leaps In" with Count Basie's Kansas City Seven, Basie's approach to accompanying is already fully developed. The tune follows chord changes of George Gershwin's "I got Rhythm," one of jazz's so-called ever greens, or standards. It is quite clear that Basie's playing uses significantly fewer notes than other jazz pianists before him. In accompanying the melody, Basie plays chords together with the band's riffs to increase the sonic effect and also adds a few notes based on the blue-note slides, placing them on different beats to create more energy in the swing. All of this is made possible by the rhythm section with guitar, bass and even drums playing all quarters. So the effect of Basie's responses is well supported by the movement of the groove:
The next example from the same recording is very similar. This time Basie comps behind the bass solo and plays only four notes in six measures! His aesthetical choice is asking questions with piano, rather than answering them. This can be attributed mostly to Count Basie, never before would a pianist treat accompanying this way:
The next example includes a short moment of Count's performing a fragment ragtime texture, but only as a tease as he never actually develops it. However his ability to play stride is displayed, and it is possible to think of his including ragtime as a stylistic quote from older music:
In order to illustrate how different and innovative Basie's approach is, I have included two examples of the stylings of pianists that Basie admired. The first one is James P. Johnson, and he would most likely play the typical boogie-woogie. It is easy to see how busy the overall texture would become, and how Lester Young's solo would not stand out, as it does in the original recording. It is also obvious that this kind of piano playing would create clashing between higher voicings that would be almost unavoidable. The right hand part is made of typical for boogie riffs:
The other most popular piano style of the time was ragtime or stride, which Basie used as well, but only for short time. This example presents the styling of the great Jelly Roll Morton, and his playing would also change the texture dramatically. Just the left hand part would make the sound heavier and less diverse. Adding the riffs and arpeggios in the right hand would push Young into a constant fight with the piano, which would be more similar to the old New Orleans style of nineteen twenties. It is interesting to remember however, that Basie's style was developed after he learned how to play boogie-woogie and stride and was looking for the new sound and ways to improve the ensemble collaboration. This imitation of Jelly Roll would probably not be the best setting for Lester Young, and if we imagine this collaboration actually happening, Lester's playing would probably be very different:
The last example comes from the 1974 recording of "Count Basie Encounters Oscar Peterson," and it features two giants playing together, accompanied only by a rhythm section. The tune is called S & J Blues, and its name uses the first letters of Satch and Josh, pianist's nicknames. It is also based on the same chord progression and sounds very much like "Lester Leaps In." The recording is one of the Norman Granz projects that were designed to document what happened when two different musicians from different eras and styles would play together. Most of these recordings were superbly successful and also very controversial. Most of these duos combine musicians who never played together before the actual recording. The most amazing element in the Basie-Peterson duo is how easily these masters, who represent absolutely opposite approaches to piano playing, find a common language. First and foremost, Peterson knew Basie's style very well, and used comping in Basie's style on most of his recordings. Basie on the other hand could play fast passages almost as well as Peterson and liked the idea of piano dueling. So in many instances, it is difficult to even tell the difference between the two. The main dissimilarity between other "piano duels" and this recording is Basie's approach based on questioning rather than answering. It even makes Peterson play less and be more careful and sensitive to Basie's playing than he could be to other musicians on his other recordings. And Basie's comping in 1975 was very similar to his comping in 1939, a remarkable consistency in thirty five years of making music!
It is clear after looking at these recordings that Count Basie's comping style represents not only a different way of playing, but an entirely new philosophical concept of communal musicing and supporting other musicians instead of competing in creating of the solo lines.
"Count Basie has changed the face of ensemble playing in terms of arranging for the jazz band using riffs and the rhythm section."
Basie's comping was a turning point in the development of new understanding among ensemble pianists.
"The most important thing for us was making contact with the other musicians."
Every successful jazz pianist after Basie uses his method while accompanying, and it is also fully responsible for developing new much more relaxed and free way of improvising for other instrumentalists. Basie's comping style was a combination of older jazz piano styles as well as the new sound of multi-instrumental groups such as big bands and Count's own innovation and ingenuity. Were it not for Count Basie's comping, piano jazz and jazz music in general might be very different today.
Please check my Jazz Album for Piano for music examples and sheet music of complete stylings of Basie and other major jazz pianists.
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