Ed's Transcription of "Dolphin Dance"

[EdByrne]

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with yet another transcription; this time of Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance," a unique piece which I performed with Herbie years ago in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Since the melody is widely known and basically correct, I'm only including the harmonic chord succession--which is somewhat more different in reality than you might think. (I'm trying to find Herbie's manuscript, which is somewhere in my library; but if memory serves, it includes the melody alone at any rate.)

As I've stated before in other threads, it's sophisticated original compositions such as this that especially need to be verified through transcription, rather than trusting the Real Book and other unofficial sources.

I have also supplied a detailed analysis, as I did with Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Porkpie Hat."

Feel free to sign up (free) and ask questions and/or make comments, or you can do so here in this thread.

The actual music--and the analysis--can be found at the site below:

http://www.freejazzinstitute.org/showposts.php?dept=transcriptions&topic=20070608154908_EdByrne

[Zoltan]

This is a fantastic transcription. I definitely had trouble identifying a couple of the voicings in this tune before reading this. This has great harmonies which certainly out-does the Real Book transcription of the song. Thank you so much.

[EdByrne]

Zoltan,

I'm glad you find it useful. Have a look around that site; there's a lot of other good stuff as well. You might like "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," for example.

Best,
Ed

[engelbach]

Thanks, Ed. Very helpful transcription of Dolphin Dance.

I haven't liked some of the changes in either Real Book 1 or the Sher New Real Book 3 (although the latter was a big improvement), so I've just substituted my own. You've clarified some of the harmonies that puzzled me.

[EdByrne]

Thanks, Ed. Very helpful transcription of Dolphin Dance.

I haven't liked some of the changes in either Real Book 1 or the Sher New Real Book 3 (although the latter was a big improvement), so I've just substituted my own. You've clarified some of the harmonies that puzzled me.

Glad to have been of help, Jer. Some tunes are too special to entrust to unofficial sources. With a piece like this, I always try to start with the urtext, which is the original recording by the composer. As with Wayne Shorter, Hancock knows exactly what he wants--& is special & sophisticated.

In the case of standards, it's instead about signifying--2 different types of story, with different intent. For example, I would never reharmonize Dolphin Dance, but I reharmonize & arrange many of the standards that I perform.

[guitarjazz]

Several years ago there was an article on the Internet comparing two different transcriptions of the same Charlie Parker performance. Both were done by guys with lots of transcribing experience including Reed Kotler, who invented one of the early slow-down programs. Guess what? The transcriptions were quite different!
That being said, and with all due respect to Ed, I hear some different changes to Dolphin Dance at certain spots. In the sixth line down, second bar, the B/F7 doesn’t take into account the melody note(d). My ears heard a F13b9b5. Backing up to the fifth line, third measure..I distinctly hear a c# in the chord. The following chord I hear as a Ebaugmaj7/G7 , which gives it the unique property of having a natural fifth and a raised fifth(D#). The next to last chord in the form I hear as similar to the New Real Book 3, which calls it a C7#9/Eb. There is a point in the original version where Herbie arpeggiates it and that exactly what I heard (from the bottom e,g,c,e flat) over Eb. I’d probably call it an Eb13b9.He also moves that voicing down it minor thirds at one point. I also hear a cadence back to C minor in the last bar…so some form of G7 or Dmin7b5-G7. Call me crazy!
There is a nice version of Herbie doing a solo piano version of this on a Bill Evans Tribute CD.
I’d love to see Herbie’s sheet on it!

[EdByrne]

Several years ago there was an article on the Internet comparing two different transcriptions of the same Charlie Parker performance. Both were done by guys with lots of transcribing experience including Reed Kotler, who invented one of the early slow-down programs. Guess what? The transcriptions were quite different!
That being said, and with all due respect to Ed, I hear some different changes to Dolphin Dance at certain spots. In the sixth line down, second bar, the B/F7 doesn’t take into account the melody note(d). My ears heard a F13b9b5. Backing up to the fifth line, third measure..I distinctly hear a c# in the chord. The following chord I hear as a Ebaugmaj7/G7 , which gives it the unique property of having a natural fifth and a raised fifth(D#). The next to last chord in the form I hear as similar to the New Real Book 3, which calls it a C7#9/Eb. There is a point in the original version where Herbie arpeggiates it and that exactly what I heard (from the bottom e,g,c,e flat) over Eb. I’d probably call it an Eb13b9.He also moves that voicing down it minor thirds at one point. I also hear a cadence back to C minor in the last bar…so some form of G7 or Dmin7b5-G7. Call me crazy!
There is a nice version of Herbie doing a solo piano version of this on a Bill Evans Tribute CD.
I’d love to see Herbie’s sheet on it!

Hey guitar,

You may be right. I didn't have any fancy equipment when I did this years ago: just an LP & a pencil. I think it's pretty close, though. Since not everyone played exactly the same pitch collections in every chorus, I chose to make judgement calls & come up with an overall composite of what I thought was the general consensus. The examples you cite differ from chorus to chorus. It, therefore, is not an exact science. It did get me close enough to perform it with Herbie, though.

Let's see your transcription.

Ed

[guitarjazz]

The closest thing I have to a transcription is my marked-up old Real Book. The Sher book is close enough if I need to play with someone who doesn’t know it.
You’re right that it’s not an exact science. That’s part of the fun.
DD is a beguiling tune. Even though I feel like I know it pretty well I’m always discovering some new facet.
What size group did you perform with Herbie?

[EdByrne]

The closest thing I have to a transcription is my marked-up old Real Book. The Sher book is close enough if I need to play with someone who doesn’t know it.
You’re right that it’s not an exact science. That’s part of the fun.
DD is a beguiling tune. Even though I feel like I know it pretty well I’m always discovering some new facet.
What size group did you perform with Herbie?

Sextet & Big Band. I think, as usual, that the key is the melody--which is strong. There are some non-functional "guide tone lines," too--especially over the pedals, which remind me of Debussy's "Nuages." I don't take the chords too seriously in terms of direction for improvising--only color & mood. I love how the melody climaxes 2/3 through on the highest note of duration, a classic golden section. That motive only happens that once. It's a beautifully constructed work on all levels. Btw, for me the most noteworthy chord is the Ab7-5 blues chord in the momentary Cm, suggesting b5 blues phrases.

[guitarjazz]

Sextet & Big Band.
Woulda like to have caught that!
Heard a nice live performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G last night.I thought about your comments about the Concerto for Left Hand.

[okvinge]

Since Herbie Hancock's music is always relevant, I thought I should revive this thread about one of his great composistions:

I'd like to share with you the transcription I made of the chorus of Hancock's original solo from the album Maiden Voyage in 1965. I strongly believe in transcription as a tool for learning by trying to copy the great masters. Half the work is doing the notation of what I hear, but it is just as important to actually play and try to understand what is going on. I did a demo with my quartet short time after writing down the solo, and I do believe I made progression in my playing as part of this process. I did, anyway, spend more time getting familiar with the tune, than I have done ever before. Here is the Finale print of the 1st chorus. (I also did 2nd chorus, but have not Finale-ized it yet)

Hancock plays very laidback with a lot of triplets in his version, and it is hopless to make a readable notation of his phrasing, but you will get the idea if you read the notes and listen to the original at the same time.

Øystein

Mod EDIT
Music removed for copyright reasons. The fact that you transcribe something does not allow you to publish it
Tenorman

[engelbach]

Okvinge,

Very nice work! Thank you.

Cheers,
Jer

[Jeff Brent]

Okvinge,

This turned out to be a rather fortunate coincidence for me.

I happened to be working through a few different versions of this tune, and then suddenly this pops up.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks so much!

[okvinge]

Okvinge,

This turned out to be a rather fortunate coincidence for me.

I happened to be working through a few different versions of this tune, and then suddenly this pops up.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks so much!

I am happy if the transcription can be of assistance to anyone.

The thought behind publishing the transcription is to offer the community here a slightly different approach to the anaytical part of jazz studies. I believe most postings in this section are based on a "bottomn up" approach, meaning that people ask how to use the small building blocks of theory to be able to improve their skills as improvising musicians. The thinking is based on the general to construct the spesific.

Typical example: "What scales can be used for the following changes" - "What common scale fits on a II - V - I progression". "On what dominant chords fits the half - whole step scale" etc.

Now, we can also look at this from the opposite direction Top - Down , we can look at the spesific and generalise from what Herbie did in 1965. Maybe we can learn from the changes what scales works so fine in his solo? Maybe his example can tell us something on how a scale is put into practical use, in a way that sounds "right".

What do you think? Could an analysis of the solo be a way to further develop this thread?

By the way, Hancock also recorded Dolphin Dance as part of the trio album Third plane in 1986,in a much less laidback style, and would be interesting to compare to the 1965 recording. So here is the challenge to all of us - to transcribe the 1986 version!

Hilsen

Øystein

[engelbach]

I am happy if the transcription can be of assistance to anyone.

The thought behind publishing the transcription is to offer the community here a slightly different approach to the anaytical part of jazz studies. I believe most postings in this section are based on a "bottomn up" approach, meaning that people ask how to use the small building blocks of theory to be able to improve their skills as improvising musicians. The thinking is based on the general to construct the spesific.

Typical example: "What scales can be used for the following changes" - "What common scale fits on a II - V - I progression". "On what dominant chords fits the half - whole step scale" etc.

Now, we can also look at this from the opposite direction. We can look at the spesific and generalise from what Herbie did in 1965. Maybe we can learn from the changes what scales works so fine in his solo? Maybe his example can tell us something on how a scale is put into practical use, in a way that sounds "right".

What do you think? Could an analysis of the solo be a way to further develop this thread?

By the way, Hancock also recorded Dolphin Dance as part of the trio album Third plane in 1986,in a much less laidback style, and would be interesting to compare to the 1965 recording. So here is the challenge to all of us - to transcribe the 1986 version!

Hilsen

Øystein
One thing that is instructive about a transcription is that it reveals that even for the composer of a tune the "right" changes were often fluid.