Track on Self-Immolation
6) Series of Adjustments
212 pbm
Series of Adjustments alters your alignment with its angular and syncopated take on the venerable institution of I Got Rhythm changes. Soloists stretch out and counterpose the traditional Rhythm chords with Series’ own mad bebop progression, punctuated and smoking.
Influences
[ Thelonious Monk, Lester Young ]
Next to the 12-bar blues, perhaps the most core of Jazz forms is the 32-bar, AABA I Got Rhythm changes. There are plenty of examples in Jazz canon like Anthropology by Charlie Parker, Rhythm-a-Ning by Thelonious Monk and Oleo by Sonny Rollins which become especially popular among Bebop musicians, and are still a staple of jam sessions.
Form
Series of Adjustments takes a nod from Thelonious Monk’s chordal approach on Humph, which replaces the 2-bar cellular cadential unit of Rhythm with a busy four bar descent of dominant chords starting on the raised fifth and landing on the a pedal tonic for four bars (or playing the rest of the Rhythm head.) Series slows down the chromatic descent by employing ii-V patterns rather than dominants, but goes on longer, melding into the normal Rhythm changes pattern in bar 5, which is a ii-V of IV; so Series starts on the ii-V of b2, also a dissonant place.
On the bridge, where each two bars is a dominant, Humph changes the dominants to dominant flat fives. Series’ approach is to start each two bars with the regular dominant, and then in the second bar, lavish in a bvi-bII tritone substitution leading into the next chord.
Credits
- composed by David Elaine Alt and published by Aural Imaging
- David Elaine Alt, Tenor Saxophone
- Henry Hung, Trumpet
- Andrew Ryan, Drums
- Grant Levin, Piano
- Gabe Davis, Bass
- Kenny Annis, Bass
- Steve Armstrong, Recording Engineer
- Mixed by David Elaine Alt at Flaming Hakama
- Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha and David Elaine Alt at Flaming Hakama