GROOVE YARD (Transcribed by GIBSON BOY)

This time, I transcribed the melody statement and ad-lib from “Groove Yard” in the album Groove Yard/The Montgomery Brothers/Riverside RLP-362 by Wes. The Montgomery Brothers recorded several pieces during their Pacific period, including Montgomery Brothers and 5 Others, but they have only two albums under the Riverside label: this album and George Shearing And The Montgomery Brothers/JAZZLAND. In this album, Wes’s performance seems to emphasize the group’s sound characteristic of the band (arrangement), resulting in a somewhat restrained performance. It feels different from the passionately burning live performances, giving a more chamber music-like, balanced feeling. However, Wes’s technique and ad-lib content are still perfect. His playing is highly musical, singing beautifully, grooving coolly here.

“Groove Yard” is a representative masterpiece by the famous pianist C. Perkins, also performed in Japan by the Kunihiko Sugano Trio (Kiyohito Koizumi, a Wes researcher familiar from this site, is the regular bassist of this group) and Phineas Newborn, among others. It is a beautifully melodic minor tune with a groovy triple meter feel and very pleasant chord progressions. However, playing this theme in octaves is quite difficult, and the ad-lib, predominantly in sixteenth notes and at this speed, requires considerable skill to play with the thumb. Nonetheless, the beautiful phrases are definitely worth mastering.

Ad-lib Analysis The key points of the ad-lib in this piece are:

The fourth interval progression of the V7th chords in bars 5-7, 13-15, and 21-22 of the bridge (A♭7-D♭7-G♭7-B7~). Wes’s thinking is brilliantly embodied in the phrases within the fourth interval progression of the V7th chords. From the fourth beat of bar 4 to bars 5-7, the V7th fourth interval progression is detailed with sixteenth notes, clearly subdividing each V7th into II m7-V7 to create the phrases. From the fourth beat of bar 12 to bars 13-15, the V7th fourth interval progression, unlike before, uses fewer notes such as eighth notes, resolving the 6th and 7th of the V7 and the ♭7 of the next V7, wonderfully constructing the V7th fourth interval progression.

Beautiful and stylish minor phrases (E♭m7-A♭7 and E♭m7/B♭ pedal)

GIBSON BOY