Let’s start with the first eight bars, four bars of Bbm, and four of Ebm. Believe it or not, these kinds of passages can be harder to play over than when you have a bunch of chords. When I first started playing jazz professionally (as a bass player) having to walk over one chord for long stretches was what made me the most nervous.
Now the last thing you want to do is just play “Bbm” over Bbm. Check this out:
We’re connecting the different Bbm chords with a passing C-half-diminished. The Ebm7’s are connected by means of passing Fm7’s. And by doing this we’re creating a simple backing melody. What's in this example might be more than you actually need to be doing when you're in the trenches, I just wanted to show you the various possibilities in that position.
You’ll notice all the motives whose last notes are on the “and” of the beat. The tendency is to even those eighth notes out, which is wrong wrong wrong! A great model for doing it right is Miles Davis’ famous “So What.”
Listen to the backing horns at 7:05 behind the piano solo. The riff consists of two eighth notes on beat four of every alternate measure, swung, with a little accent on the “and” note. Thus, ooo-Bop-*-2-3-4-1-2-3-ooo-Bop…. That last eighth note will be short, and the listener will perceive an accent due to its inherent syncopation .
And here’s the first 8 of the head, which you want to know anyway. COPY AND INTERNALIZE THESE RHYTHMS AND ARTICULATIONS.
Seeya
