Post 597 : MIDDLE EIGHT JAZZ ANXIETIES

The band-leader announced that we would play I Get The Blues When It Rains.

The clarinet-player leaned across to me and quietly said, 'Just remind me how the Middle Eight goes.'

I hummed the tune and soon had to stop. 'Hey, wait a minute!' I said. 'I Get The Blues When It Rains doesn't have a Middle Eight. It's a 16 plus 16.'

'Ah yes. Got it!' he replied. And away we went, with no problems playing the tune.

But the incident reminded me that Middle Eights can cause problems and anxiety.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, let me tell you most of our standard tunes are written in a 32-bar form. Sometimes (as in I Get The Blues When It Rains) the structure could be described as A1 (16 bars) + A2 (16 bars), in which A1 and A2 are very similar, beginning in identical ways for the first few bars.

But a huge number of the 32-bar tunes are structured in 8-bar segments, of which the first (A1), second (A2) and fourth (A3) are almost identical, while the third (B1) is something quite different. This 'B' section is called the Middle Eight (even though it does not come in the very middle); and it is sometimes called the Bridge or the Release.

(Incidentally I'm reminded of a very old joke. Two jazz musicians walked past a newspaper hoarding on which were the words Indiana Bridge Disaster. 'That's funny,' said one of them. 'I didn't think there was a bridge in Indiana.')

Although there are some stock patterns for Middle Eights (making it easy to improvise), there are also a few tunes that defy conventions. In these cases, you have to learn the Middle Eight the hard way and keep it in your head with regular practice.

All musicians have trouble with Middle Eights occasionally. I have even heard some of the 'big names' being flummoxed at this part of their improvisation.

Examples of tunes needing practice and care with the Middle Eight are I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket, Rosetta, Blue Moon, You Took Advantage of Me, Have You Met Miss Jones?, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Yearning, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?, and C'est Si Bon. Although very few bands play them, Body and Soul and When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes need care, too.

In more complex multi-part tunes, you may find several themes, each of which has a challenging Middle Eight. Think of Deep Henderson, which contains three themes with Middle Eights that have to be thoroughly mastered. The Middle Eight of the final theme is a real thriller (arpeggios descending over unlikely chords). But Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones and Jonathan Doyle make it sound easy at 1 minute 53 seconds in this video:

CLICK HERE.

Post 554: THE MAGIC OF THE SONG 'YEARNING' BY JOSEPH BURKE AND BENNY DAVIS

We had just finished playing Yearning - the 1924 tune by Joseph Burke and Benny Davis. My good friend Al Harris, the string bass player, said: 'I love that tune. There's something really gorgeous about the Middle Eight.'

How right Al was! The tune is a standard aaba in structure. The 'a' sections are simple, catchy and, of course, repetitive. But that 'b' section - the middle eight - really does take the breath away. Quite apart from its emotional melody, can you think of any other middle eight in which the central four bars are based on the VII⁷ chord? The only one I can think of is Am I Blue?

This very unusual Middle Eight is:

III^m     III^m    VII⁷   VII⁷   VII⁷   VII⁷   III^m   V⁷

Lasse Collin, the great benefactor of jazz musicians the world over, has produced on his website [ http://cjam.lassecollin.se/ ] this excellent lead-sheet of the song. We must be grateful that Lasse includes even the Verse, which is all too rarely played:

You can hear a lovely relaxed performance of this tune played in 1961 by the great Jim Robinson band, including Slow Drag and George Guesnon, by CLICKING HERE.

Or, for a fine performance by one of the best bands in the world today, go to 27 minutes 18 seconds into this video. Better still, sit back and enjoy the entire video. It is one of the finest traditional jazz concerts of recent years: CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH IT.

Post 316: 'MOONGLOW'

At the request of a member of a little band in which I sometimes play, I added Moonglow to my repertoire.

This catchy tune was written in 1934 by Hudson, Delange and Mills.

As ever, I have used a Mini Filofax page for it. I chose to put it in the Key of G (for the convenience of playing on a Bb cornet). I kept the chord structure simple, though I am aware that more subtle changes would have been possible.

What strikes me about this tune is the way it cleverly teases the listener and thus achieves its striking effects. For example, the first bar of melody sounds like an anacrusis but in fact it really is the first bar proper. Also, the first two bars are based on the chords of C major and C minor respectively, even though the tune is actually in G. (After You've Gone, That's My Home, Glad Rag Doll and I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me start in a similar way.)

In its principal 8-bar melody, Moonglow uses a simple two-bar theme three times. You could hardly devise anything less complex. But look at the changing harmonies and you find the first B natural is harmonised against C minor, the next one against A major (making in effect A9th) and the third B natural is played against a D major (making in effect a D6th). The final two bars of the eight (all on the melody note of G - again seemingly very simple) are played over the beautifully shifting harmonies of G, G diminished, A minor 7th and G again. What a super effect that achieves.

And what about the Middle Eight? They start with a G7. Fair enough. Surely that will lead smoothly into C major?

Oh no it doesn't. We descend exquisitely through F#7th and F7th to E7th! And the next four bars go (as we might expect) from A7th to D7th - but there is yet another surprise: we slide through C major 7th on the way!

Mastering this tune with the band should not be difficult. There are only 16 bars to learn, even though you have to play 32. I'm already thinking of the pleasure those teasingly beautiful harmonic games will give.

Post Script: After reading the above, Henry (Banjo, Germany) has sent me this chord chart for Moonglow, which his band uses. Thanks, Henry.

Post 284: 'C'EST SI BON'

The period between 1940 and 1980 was a Golden Age for popular music. Songs had words that were important and worth listening to, with a narrative and drama; and those words were articulated clearly by great singers, accompanied by a real, accomplished pianist or band or orchestra, playing from an arrangement that would include adventurous harmonies, changes in rhythm and key; and even accelerandos, rallentandos and pauses.

Some of the best tunes came from France. One of them was C’est Si Bon.

It is a catchy, happy, leaping tune. But I particularly admire the extraordinarily adventurous harmonies, as well as the surprises in the melody.

You will remember that it begins:

Already, after the anacrusis, we find the opening accented note (the E flat) is the fourth note of the Bb scale. This is an unusual opening gambit, though not totally uncommon. But look too at the harmonies:

We start on the chord of C minor 7th; and it will take the whole of the first eight bars to establish that we are in fact in the Key of Bb.

We soon begin to feel that – in structure - this is going to be one of those conventional 32-bar tunes, shaped A – A – B – A.

But two more daring developments are in store.

First, the ‘middle eight’ (Section B) begins with an amazing melodic line. Remember we are in the key of Bb; and yet the melody descends the scale of Db! On the face of it, this seems simply not do-able. What on earth can the composer be playing at? And yet – when you have heard it a few times and become accustomed to it – you have to admit the trick works just perfectly.

Here again, the harmonies add to our sense of amazement.

How often would you find a popular tune in Bb that included the chords of B natural, Db7th and Gb? Nowhere else, I guess.

The second half of this ‘middle eight’ returns us eventually to the secure ground of Bb.

We move into what we think will be the final eight, only to discover that the melody goes stratospheric in the 7th and 8th bars, leading into a further ‘final eight’.

So in fact we have a 'final sixteen' and the complete tune comprises 40 bars, not the expected 32.

How daring is that?

C’est Si Bon was composed by Henri Betti in 1947, and its words were written by André Hornez. Betti, who died in 2005 at the age of 87, was – you may not be surprised to hear – a classically-trained pianist who made a good living as a writer of music for films.

As usual, having worked on C'est Si Bon, I wrote it out on mini filofax paper so that I have an aide-mémoire and also so that I could learn it by heart to avoid boredom on a bus journey. I put it in to the key of C, which is how I fancy it as a Bb trumpet player.

Post 159: POPULAR SONGS WITH MIDDLE EIGHT KEY CHANGES

My friend John Burns suggested I should write something about classic songs that change key during the course of the melody.

This topic fascinates me but I wish I knew more about the theoretical aspects of harmony. John generously over-estimates my ability.

However, I am sure you would agree there are some songs that - when you first hear them - sound as though something weird or wrong has happened, usually at about the midway point of the chorus. You listen to them time and again until you discover the tune has embedded itself in your consciousness and the ‘weirdness’ begins to sound right. You then realise it’s the weirdness that gives the tune its memorable character.

Examples of tunes fitting this description (and I would be grateful if you would suggest any more) are When It’s Sleepy Time Down South, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?, China Boy, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Body And Soul, I’m Getting Sentimental Over You, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Tea For Two. They all take us by surprise with the chords they use in the Middle Eight.

What seems to happen in these 32-bar tunes is: (1) we begin with two similar 8-bar phrases in the home key; then (2) in Bar 17 we switch into a different key before (3) finding the dominant 7^th in Bar 24 and so (4) returning to a final eight comfortably back in the home key.

As an example, consider When It’s Sleepy Time Down South. In the Key of F, its first two 8-bar phrases are not entirely orthodox. They begin on the chord of Bb major; but this is immediately followed by Bb minor, which takes us naturally into F in the third bar; and so we are comfortably rooted in F up to the end of Bar 16.

Then wow! We are suddenly in the Key of A, with the melody twice climbing the stairs and pottering around at the top of the stave.

But in Bar 24, we land on the A chord, which quickly transmutes into A7th sliding up to C7th – and so we are beautifully steered back into the Key of F for the reassuring final eight bars.

That is pretty much what happens in all these tunes. Probably the simplest is China Boy. It’s usually played in the Key of F but the Middle 8 is distinctly in Ab, with Bars 23 and 24 sliding us back into the comfort zone, via the chords of Ab and C7th respectively.

Then of course there is I Love Paris by the great Cole Porter. The chorus has 16 bars in the minor key followed by virtually the same melody in the major (achieving a sudden brightness from Bar 17). The first sixteen bars could be in C minor, the next sixteen in C major.

I may be wrong, but I think the proportion of classic songs using the harmonic key-changing trick is probably fewer than 10%. But they form an interesting group – offering so much more of a challenge to the musician and improviser than the hundreds of tunes with orthodox harmonic patterns.

Post 38: FANCY A MIDDLE TEN? OR MIDDLE FOUR?

Playing traditional jazz, you quickly become accustomed to the pattern of 32 bars in which there are four 'eight's. It occurs in hundreds of the good old songs. We often think of these four groups of eight bars as

a   -  a   -   b   -  a

with 'a' being more or less the same musical phrase each time, while 'b' uses a different, contrasting melody and a different chord progression. The 'b' section is called 'the middle eight' or sometimes 'the release' or 'the bridge'. Think of Ice Cream or One Sweet Letter from You as examples.

This 32-bar routine comes very naturally to musicians and audiences because it fits in with our instinctive toe-tapping or hand-clapping patterns and also because the triple appearance of the 'a' section reinforces our perception of the melody and makes it easy to pick up.

But just occasionally you come across a tune that FEELS like a 32-bar  a  -  a  -  b  -  a structure but in fact throws in a surprise. I recently noticed a couple.

These Foolish Things fits the pattern except that the Middle Eight is actually a MIDDLE FOUR. (I am referring to the sheet music version. I note that jazz groups sometimes make the four bars into eight by playing all the notes at double the written length.) So the tune (in its correct form, at least) ends up with 28 bars instead of 32. Try it and you will see what I mean.

What Am I Living For? (made famous by the Kid Thomas Band) clearly has a Middle Four - not a Middle Eight.

Even more surprising is Top Hat, White Tie and Tails, where the Middle Eight becomes a Middle TEN! How does this happen? Well, at the end of the first four bars of the 'Middle Eight', the long note in the fourth bar is extended for another full bar. Then this happens again after four more bars. It sounds weird? But watch Fred Astaire dancing and singing (on You Tube) and you will see for yourself that this is exactly what happens. It's as if the extra two bars (which have the effect almost of pauses) give a chance for the performer to catch a breath.

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The book Playing Traditional Jazz by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.