Dennis Sandole updates

If you haven't seen it already, check out my previous post on Dennis Sandole for the relevant background. Thanks to the good folks at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, I've been able to access Lord's Jazz Discography "Jazz CD" (version 16.0) to follow up on a couple loose ends that were left hanging.

Lord's gives 35 entries under "Dennis Sandole", as well as 1 for Dennis Sandoli and 2 for Danny Sandoli. It's pretty clear from context that they are variant spellings, and not different people.

Early Dennis Sandole Sessions/Compositions

Lord's discography lists 21 airshots and recording sessions with the Tommy Dorsey band between and 10 Feb 1943 and 1 May 1944.

There are 4 sessions listed with Boyd Raeburn (15 May thru 30 June 1944)

and 4 with Charlie Barnet (23 Mar thru 20 May 1946).

Sandole's mysterious Fantasy album "Compositions and Arrangements For Guitar" [Fantasy F 3251, 1958] is not listed, and I still have no further information about that one.

Charlie Ventura co-wrote "High on an Open Mic" with Sandole, and recorded it seven times between 1947 and 1977. (Begins at 21:12 in the video below.)

This band features Fats Navarro on trumpet, Chubby Jackson on bass, and Buddy Rich on drums. Ventura plays tenor with Allen Eager. Ralph Burns on piano, and Al Valenti on guitar.

Variants

Danny Sandoli is credited on two additional airshots with the Tommy Dorsey band, one from 11 Oct 1943 and one from an unknown date, but released on a V Disc, so clearly sometime during WWII. (The Lord's reference numbers are [D5935-16] and [D5932-16] respectively.)

[[Note: Discogs user gurunet posted an entry for the first, but it doesn't appear to match the info provided by Lord's. Maybe someone can help clarify this.]]

Dennis Sandoli is credited on a 16 July 1942 studio date with Ray McKinley, which resulted in 8 cuts, spread across several releases. (Lord's ref [M4725-16].) Four of these were compiled by YouTube user Ralf Siebert:

Consistent with the style of the day, Sandole's playing is more "felt" than "heard".

"Sandoli" was a fairly common misspelling of Dennis' last name, and can be found in print numerous times throughout the 50's. Here's an example from the Wilmington News Journal, 2 Feb 1956 (p 31):

The variation Denny Sandole can be found in print occasionally, as in this ad from the Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 Sep 1948 (p 19):

Lastly, I came across Dionisio Sandole, which appeared in the Baltimore Sun on 26 Feb 1955 (p 3):

I include all this with the hope of aiding future researchers in finding out more about this important figure from jazz history.

Electric Miles - Splash

Well, after five years I'm finally making good.

"Splash" was recorded on November 12 1968 in Columbia's Studio B, with Miles's then-touring band: Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Chick Corea, and Tony Williams; Herbie Hancock was added to the session as a second pianist.

An edited version of "Splash" was included on Circle in the Round, a compilation of various materials that was released during Davis' hiatus in the late 1970's. (Water Babies and Directions are similar collections.) But the full take was unreleased until 2002's Complete In A Silent Way Sessions.

To hear the edited version of "Splash", scan to 1:03:20 in the video above. It begins at Letter D in my transcription.

It's something of a myth among jazz musicians that Miles Davis didn't actually write any music, that all of the tunes attributed to him were actually written by other people. But this is to take a few cases (Solar, Four, perhaps Blue in Green) and draw a false conclusion (some, therefore all). Miles was an accomplished and thoughtful writer, evidenced even in the late 40's with "Donna Lee". His work in the late 60's is groundbreaking in the way it embeds open modal improvisation within a larger composed scheme. Other tunes that do this: Frelon Brun, Shh/Peaceful, and the Ghetto Walk, all from 1968.

Paul Tingen describes "Splash" as "almost a cross between 'Two Faced' and 'Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process,' [both recorded the previous day - ME] employing both the stop-start device of the former and echoes of the twist rhythm in the latter." (2001, p. 53)

Download Splash (Concert pitch).
Eb version
Bb version

Paul Bley - All The Things You Are [Live]

Paul Bley was one of my earliest influences as a pianist. After buying my first Real Book I was intrigued by the tunes without barlines. They all seemed to be written by Carla Bley. I wanted to hear how these tunes sounded, so I went searching for recordings of them, and I came across a Paul Bley record at Wazoo in Ann Arbor. (This was probably in 1999.) It was a double-LP on Arista called "Copenhagen and Haarlem", which came out in 1975 but was a reissue of two dates recorded a decade earlier. Some of Carla's tunes appeared on the record, so I bought it, and my life began to change.

Based on his recordings, I transcribed his versions of Annette Peacock's "Cartoon" and "Touching", and learned to play Carla Bley's "Vashkar", "Syndrome", and "Jesus Maria", as well as Paul's solo on "When Will The Blues Leave" (Footloose! 1962). He had and continues to have a huge influence on my playing.

Yet with all this early influence, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it was just last year that I learned Bley had recorded briefly with Sonny Rollins. In my years of listening to him and trying to play like him, I had never heard his solo on "All The Things You Are" (Sonny Meets Hawk). Thanks to Kevin Sun for sharing his transcription of this remarkable solo.

A little bit later, I found Together At Newport, a quasi-legitimate European release that documents a live performance with the same quintet (with Henry Grimes playing bass instead of Bob Cranshaw). The live set contains a version of "All The Things You Are" with a solo by Paul Bley that is at least as mind-bending as the studio version. In between my other obligations, I finished the right hand in March, and after quite a bit of close listening I was able to figure out most of Bley's left hand. There are a few anomalies which bear mentioning.

1. The recording fidelity is poor, and Bley in this period had a tendency to "feather" single notes in the left hand. Needless to say, the left hand took more than a little bit of extrapolation and should be played delicately, rather than as usual "comping".
2. Bley is able to sustain a few pitches at once, in a way that is easiest to explain as left-hand intervention or through use of the sostenuto pedal.
3. To complicate everything most beautifully, Grimes' walking lines are equally angular, so that even when Bley is playing "in the chord"... it becomes masked.

Bley is not improvising with George Russellian "upper extensions" to the chords (although they might be analyzed as such); he seems to completely break free from the chord progression, following his own pan-tonic muse, superimposing two or three tonal areas before always returning home. Recall George Russell's River Boat diagram of tonality; we could place this style of Paul Bley somewhere in between John Coltrane's jet and Ornette Coleman's rocket to space: he expertly follows the form, but rather than following or expanding on the changes, he dances around them, only occasionally (and fleetingly) keeping to the parent scale for more than a few measures.

Rest in Peace, Paul. You've made the world a more confusing and wonderful place.

Download PDF (Concert pitch) UPDATED 9/23

So, in keeping with the ethos this blog has had from the very beginning... not to present objective descriptions of "what was played", but interpret what was done in the most rational way, and leaving the work open to peer review ... look this over yourselves and leave your comments below.

I can make Bb and Eb versions if there's any interest, just leave a comment.

Bill Evans - All About Rosie

I transcribed this solo in 2012, and have been tweaking it ever since. It's pretty close but I'd welcome any feedback you have. I couldn't find any other transcriptions of this amazing solo, so have at it!

The solo begins at 6:24 in the video below:

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Gunther-Schuller-George-Russell-Modern-Jazz-Concert/release/5280839

Full Solo:

Bill Evans - All About Rosie (C)

Bill Evans - All About Rosie (Bb)

Bill Evans - All About Rosie (Eb)

Warne Marsh, John Lewis

I've posted a few tunes from Tristano and his students in the past. Here's one that was written by Warne Marsh, Dixie's Dilemma. A contrafact on Jerome Kern's classic All The Things You Are, the tune's title has a colorful and vulgar story behind it that I won't summarize here. As with most of the Tristano school's compositions, this one is beautiful, clever, and difficult.

It's all the more remarkable considering that both Marsh and fellow saxophonist Ted Brown play this composition on tenor saxophone, a real workout of the horn's altissimo range.

I've also decided to take a crack at Milestones, a composition written by either Miles Davis or John Lewis, depending on which source you believe. While original credit for the composition went to Charlie Parker, almost every contemporary source disagrees with this. But whether the actual author was Miles Davis or John Lewis remains a matter of some dispute, even among prominent writers. Feather (1949, p. 18), Yanow (2000, p. 76), Koch (1988, p. 103) and Tingen (2001, p. 29) credit Davis, while Giddins (1998, p. 340), Priestly (2005, p. 59), and Szwed (2002, p. 60) credit Lewis. Giddins includes elaborate anecdotal information about the recording session, and asserts that the tune was written "as a gift" from Lewis to Davis. So until I hear a compelling contradiction to this story, I'll go with Lewis as the author of Milestones.

As always, your input is welcome. Post a comment!

Two Compositions by Dennis Sandole

(Hey everyone. On August 12th, we hit 20,000 views. Thanks for helping this blog grow!)



Dennis Sandole is a prodigiously influential figure in jazz history who is generally unknown; many jazz encyclopedias don't have entries for him.  Best known as having been a teacher of John Coltrane (beginning in 1946), Sandole was a skilled guitarist, innovative composer and deep musical thinker.

(Listen while you read)

Dennis Sandole

I don't have any new information to add to the life story of Dennis Sandole, so I'll just recap what you can find with a quick Google search. Sandole was born in Philadelphia in 1913. Self-taught as a guitarist, he worked as a staff musician at MGM Studios in Hollywood for several years beginning in the 1930's. In the 1940's he returned to Philadelphia where he taught at the Granoff School of Music, founded by Isadore Granoff. During that period he appeared on recordings by the Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet bands. He also performed with the Ray McKinley and Boyd Raeburn bands. (For more info, see my 2018 post.)

The Brothers Sandole, Modern Music from Philadelphia
Fantasy 3-209

In 1955, Dennis and his brother Adolph gathered an ensemble of top New York and Philadelphia musicians to record their compositions. Featured on the recording are Art Farmer, George Barrow, Teo Macero, Milt Hinton, and others. The recordings were released by Fantasy records, a major jazz label who also had released recordings of Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, and Vince Guaraldi. The Sandole recordings came out as a 10" record called "Modern Music from Philadelphia" (which was reissued on CD by Fantasy Records in 2001 as "The Sandole Brothers & Guests").

Sandole's only other recording as a leader looks to be a record called "Compositions and Arrangements for Guitar" (1958), also released by Fantasy, but this item appears to be fantastically obscure. All Music Guide makes mention of it, and Mike Callahan lists the album in an exhaustive Fantasy Album Discography. Callahan also helpfully notes that the album was "Originally issued in monaural only", suggesting that the album had actually been recorded and released. WorldCat doesn't list it, and the Library of Congress doesn't have it. I haven't checked Lord's Discography yet. (Update: I checked Lord's discography. It's not there.)

In any case, after the Fantasy releases, Sandole continued to be active as a teacher, but I cannot find any recordings on which he appears, either as a leader or as a sideman. In fact, no other recordings of Sandole were made commercially available until 1999, when Cadence released a compilation of Sandole's various projects, including some extremely rare quartet recordings from 1958 with pianist Al Del Governatore, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Frank Young. The fidelity is poor, but the compositions are stunning, and I think earn Sandole a spot alongside Charlie Parker, George Russell, Thelonious Monk, and Lennie Tristano as a major figure in post-war jazz composition.

Sandole is featured as a soloist in his composition "Dark Bayou", recorded by Charlie Barnet's Orchestra in 1946. (His solo begins at 1:30.) He co-wrote the breezy "High On An Open Mike" with fellow Philadelphian Charlie Ventura, who recorded the tune with his orchestra in 1949 and performed it live. And in the 1960's, his compositions were featured on albums by Art Farmer and James Moody. Sandole's students included John Coltrane, Pat Martino, Jim Hall, James Moody, Benny Golson, Michael Brecker, Stanley Clarke, and Matthew Shipp. He wrote at least two books, one of which, Guitar Lore, has been published. Sandole died in September 2000.

Here are two of Sandole's compositions:

Wayward Plaint was recorded by James Moody in 1964, and Michael Grossman recorded it in 1997. I'm not aware of any other recordings of the tune.

To my knowledge, the only recording of Monody is on the above-mentioned Dennis Sandole Project CD, put out by Cadence in 1999. It's beautiful and strange, as you'll find out if you play it.

Additional reading:

- Matthew Shipp's recollections about his studies with Sandole.

- A powerpoint presentation called "The Unique Jazz Pedagogy of Dennis Sandole" by Thomas Scott McGill, which includes scanned images of Sandole's lesson assignments.

- A blog post by a trumpeter Bart Miltenberger who studied with Sandole.

Rhodes part on "It's About That Time"

Ahoy hoy! Earlier this summer, I received the following comment:

A close listen to the recording suggests two things: 1) there is some sort of core voice leading going on that is more or less the same throughout, and 2) Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea are each adding their own alterations to these core voices, and change these each time. So, without digging into the rich alterations used by Corea and Hancock, I think this is a close approximation to what they were working with:

(To download MIDI file click here.)

To hear the passage I listened to for this, begin at 4:57 of this video.

I'm not especially happy with the 4th chord, but I think the others are pretty close. I'm very interested to hear what other people think. Post a comment!