![]() Here is the complete pattern that Bill Evans plays on the bridge to Oleo. Make sure you can feel these rhythms between the hands before you continue. Evans adds additional rhythmic material for variety, but begins another three-beat phrase in bar 5. The brackets identify the three-beat riff and you can see that it takes three full measures of 4/4 before the pattern begins again on beat one. The first eighth note in parentheses is not actually played by Evans, but is useful here to see the pattern. Use a metronome or count to keep your place in the 4/4 measure. Tap this pattern with the left and right hands. ![]() The hallmark of developed rhythmic improvisors is the ability to freely cross the estabilished bar lines and still create a musically complete phrase. Bill Evans uses a common technique here that can be understood as a repeated three-beat phrase over several bars of 4/4 time. Once you are comfortable with the sound and feel of the harmony, it’s time to move on to the… Rhythm I tend to think of the entire whole-tone scale that fits both interpretations. You could also think of this as D9 with a raised fourth and fifth. I’ve chosen to analyze the first chord as Ab9(#5) to highlight the descending nature of this pattern. Evans takes advantage of the nature of the whole-tone scale and tritone substitution to complete this cycle using a descending half-step motion. In a typical Bb rhythm changes tune, the bridge begins on D7 and continues to G7, C7, and F7 before resolving back to Bb. This week we will look at the the way Bill Evans uses harmony and rhythm to create a unique statement on the bridge of Sonny Rollins’ tune “Oleo.” (This recording is on the album Everybody Dig’s Bill Evans (1958) featuring Sam Jones on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums). The harmony commonly follows a cycle of dominant chords, each resolving down a fifth (or up a fourth), and the tension created by this progression provides fertile ground for melodic inventions. The bridge section of the musical form known as “rhythm changes” is a perennial improvisatory playground.
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