Bee-Bop

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

  So what were we talking about?

  Bee-Bop is a loosing proposition. First of all, when you are doing 
Bee-Bop someone has to be on the Bee while you're on the Bop. You can't 
play this stuff alone. The whole essence centers around harmony. 
Doesn't matter how convoluted the melody line is or how many "changes" 
or "returns" occur. The Bee has to be supported by the Bop.

  It is VERY difficult to get two people to think along the same lines 
and to be in sync with each other. Sure, if one was in N.Y. or some 
other ultra large (and musician attractive) city, it would be possible 
but these guys were as rare as chicken lips.

  There wasn't a big"audience base" for this kind of stuff and one 
needed a large population to draw from. The musicians (themselves) 
didn't care and were playing the music because that's what they wanted 
to do and gave no consideration to the innumeration involved as long as 
they fed themselves.

  Now let's get to talking about US. It would be hard to get the 
musicians to back you up on Bee-Bop. #1 a drummer has to be able to do 
the 2-4 thing and be comfortable with it. #2 Such a drummer would be in 
the higher eschelon of drummers and unless YOU were a name, they 
probably wouldn't play with you. OR. it would cost you. #3 Since you 
don't have a name, you probably don't have the resources to contract 
such a drummer. Same goes for the other musicians. A person in this 
genre is going to want to stick with "established" people he knows and 
understands. That's why THAT form has a fairly close-knit group of 
people who made the rounds and interchanged with each other.

  I'm not saying that Rashann Roland Kirk, Yusef LaTeef, sonny(s) 
Rollins & Stitt were ALWAYS big names in the business. It's just that 
it took time for them to establish themselves. Some people have that 
time, others don't. I for one would find it impossible to find the 
proper drummer in SW Fla, even though they are as plentiful as Carter's 
little liver pills.

  Some time when you are at a large harmonica gathering, try to notice 
if any Bee-Bop gets played. I try to insert a little every now and 
then. So does Michael Polesky. But, in all honesty, outside of the old 
New York bunch, (Villiage Vanguard, Village Gate, Top of the Gate, Blue 
Note, etc.), you hardly ever hear these tunes ever done again.

  The expertise required is high and to get the harmony, the tunes (at 
least the HEAD) have to be worked out over a chart. Unless you're a 
reader, (and a GOOD one), you won't get the head correct. Any yutz can 
do the improv(s). It's the head (and finish..which is just a repeat 
head), that determine where you go next. Someone is on a tone and 
another is on the 7th. Someone moves to another tone and the other guy 
is on a 5th. It HAS to be synchronized.

  Since there are a limited number of chords (even on a chromo), and NO 
chords on horns, the instruments have to work in unison, or everything 
just turns into a "dixieland type" jam, with everyone blowing counter 
point to one solo hombre doing point. While it is not a Bee-Bop tune, 
"Song for my Father" is an example of head harmony.

  One guy is doing: da da da   da da da da   da da da da   da da da da   
da da dum.......That's WRONG,do not pass go, do not collect $200.oo

  It SHOULD be; da da da  da diddly-up da diddly-um da da da da-diddly 
um dah (the OTHER guy does the DUM).

I could go on and on, but I won't, sorry gotta run and shower for 
tonight's gig. :)        smo-joe