Saturday 12 January 2013

Lick Of The Month #8

To kick off 2013, the first LOTM is a nice chilled out ii V I from valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer that appears on Stan Getz's version of Misty. This version of the song is down a whole step from the way it is usually performed, which I must admit did cause me a lot of confusion trying to figure out the theory behind this lick. Moral of the tale is 'Always Check The Chords!'


Anyway moving on! The lick comes in at the start of the B section and the chords are Ab-7 | Db7b9 | GbMaj7.


The lick starts with a pick up from the last chord of the A section, Db6, and hits the 5th then the root to begin a run up to the 9th of the Ab-7 for beat 1 of the first bar. The first bar consists of two phrases, the second being a slightly altered repetition of the first. The phrase is a straight run up and down the Dorian mode targetting the 6th, confirming the Dorian sound and definitely not natural minor.

The second bar shows a great way of approaching altered chords. Brookmeyer plays up the second inversion of the Db7b9 arpeggio, starting on the 5th and targeting the b9. This phrase ends on beat 1 of bar 3 on a Bb, the 3rd of the I chord. The full ii V I is finished off with a nice simple run based around the root, 3rd and 5th of the chord.


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