FINAL MAG

SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST
JAZZ BY JEREMY
JAZZ
BY
JEREMY
BY
JEREMY
PRICE
Whatever happened to the
instrumental break in pop
records? The formula used
to be groove, verse, chorus,
verse, chorus, instrumental
break, verse, chorus. Sadly
for the session trombone
economy, this seems to
have largely vanished.
The instrumental break is
quite often improvised,
or more accurately,
composed and honed on
the spot by a good jazz/
session musician in the
studio. It’s not unlikely that
the pop artist or producer
has an input, mainly for
the PRS cheque, and the
unwritten rule is that the
jazz musician gives away
pretty much all of the
creative credit in the hope
of more studio work and a
pop tour further down the
line.
Jazz musician to producer: “oh yeah
that’s a great idea. That will work really
well, thanks” referring to the exact same
riff he or she has just come up with.
Some times to keep the gig, you have
to let the producer feel that your ideas
were theirs all along. (Cynic moi?)
This issues’ two choices of transcription
are both pop solos, one chosen by our
transcription guru Rob Egerton and the
other chosen by me. Rob went for the
famous “Bones” Malone Peter Gunn,
solo and I delved deep into the 80’s for
a solo on a Matt Bianco record by our
very own Chris Dean of Syd Lawrence
fame. I can’t speak for the creative
process of these particular solos, but
both are corkers; very memorable and
great fun to play along to.
First the Peter Gunn solo. Take care
searching for this as there are many
versions out there. It’s owned by
Warner Music Group who don’t like it
being on Youtube, but it is on Spotify
if you are a subscriber. There are lots
of cover versions out there with other
rogue trombone solos (including one by
myself!) so take a bit of time hunting
down the right version. Once you’ve
found it, most striking is the laser beam
sound and stacks of blues playing.
Note: plenty of play between perfect 5th
and flat 5th, B to Bb and the dramatic
top E down a tritone to the Bb.
For the novice, you could
learn bar 14 as your
first blues lick. A bit of
decoration around this and
moving it around will make
you sound proficient for a
while!
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