Blues and jazz in New York City revolve largely around three traditions: swing, stride, and bebop. All of them took hold in upper Manhattan in a predominantly black neighborhood called Harlem. The swing tradition in New York was dominated by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Chick Webb. Swing became a vehicle for big band arrangements and virtuosic solos, but it was always rooted in the blues. Moreover, it embraced trends such as boogie-woogie and jump.

In the second decade of the century, stride evolved out of ragtime, though some pianists such as Eubie Blake never distinguished between the two styles. The three kings of stride were James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, and Fats Waller. Stride is a very complex style that requires great speed, accuracy, and facility with the left hand. When playing in this style, you play bass notes (usually roots) on beats one and three and chord voicings on beats two and four. While this is going on, the right hand plays a melody, or perhaps, solos overtop. FIGURE 11-3 shows you a rudimentary pattern using shell voicings and guide tones (thirds and sevenths). Like the previous boogie exercises, this pattern requires some independence between your hands, so practice each hand individually.

Bebop

New York City is also the home of bebop. Contemporary jazz has its roots in bebop, which is a style of jazz that evolved out of the perceived restrictions of the swing era. Swing was ultimately dance music, but around 1945, instrumentalists began to rebel against the commercialization of jazz. Soon pianists such as Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk began experimenting with extended chord voicings, chromatic flurries, and exotic modalities. Because bebop artists were more concerned with music as art, jazz generally lost its pop and dance appeal. However, the form never lost its blues roots.

FIGURE 11-3: Basic Stride Piano

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Blues progressions were transformed during the bebop period. Instead of playing just I, IV, and V chords, pianists began adding other chordal substitutions to make the blues more harmonically challenging. For example, the modern jazz blues adds ii-V chord progressions, diminished chords, and a complex ending that usually includes a iii-vi-ii-V-I chord progression. Melodically, bop and post-bop musicians also used different modes. One example is the Lydian dominant mode you learned in Chapter 5.

Jazz Blues

The four examples in FIGURE 11-4 are intermediate blues licks that you can use to spice up your solos without getting too heady or theoretical. The last lick is pretty dissonant, so don't worry about understanding all the melodic twists and turns. Simply listen to the jagged intervallic leaps and take note of the sharp nines and the flatted fifth. In some of these examples, notice how the root (C) is sometimes left out of the accompanying chord. This is idiomatic to jazz. Often, pianists will drop the root, letting the bass player supply it instead.

For the adventure seekers among you, a harmonically complex minor blues has been included in FIGURE 11-5. The minor blues is a tradition unto itself, dating all the way back to New Orleans funeral processions. In this figure, you will see ii-V chord substitutions and voicings with stacked thirds. These stacked intervals create harmonic extensions such as sevenths and ninths. Don't worry if you don't understand all the harmonic complexities inherent in this music. Just try this blues and experience the rich chords used throughout. Be careful of the key signature. C minor has three flats (B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat).