LOLLO MEIER'S STEP SWING- analysed for gypsyjazzacademy.com by Denis Chang

 

Hello academy members and guests,

In this lesson, we will be studying Lollo Meier’s composition Step Swing off his acclaimed ROSAS album.

Lollo’s style is very reminiscent of early 40s Django, and this tune is certainly no exception. The form is AABA and it is in the key of Eb with modulations to G and Bb, respectively, in the B section. But enough of that! Let’s begin the lesson!

As a perpetual music student, the most important lesson to be learned when studying other people’s music is to absorb and assimilate as much as possible. The music, as fine as it may be –and of course, always from a student’s point of view-, is of little importance! It is all about what you can get out of the music and use in your own improvisations or compositions that matters most!  

“Absorb and assimilate as much as possible”

For those of you who regularly play songs based on the Rhythm Changes form (tunes such as I’ve Got Rhythm; Daphné, Belleville, Festival 48, Swing Guitars, etc…), Step Swing will prove to be a goldmine in your arsenal of licks.

Before we talk more about this, I would like to make a note about some of the melodic choices and phrasing in Lollo’s solo. Click on the image below to download the PDF of the transcription.

 

 

LOLLO MEIER'S  STEP SWING

 

You will notice that the harmonic rhythm in Step Swing is fairly fast; in other words, the chords are often changing every 2 beats! This makes it very difficult to accurately outline each and every chord. 

Although it would be a great exercise to try to follow each change, the result would be quite melodically limiting. Instead, most soloists tend to focus on the big picture: the swing and the melody.

By swing, we mean rhythm and by rhythm, we mean phrasing! Lollo’s solo is anything but square in this recording. He will play phrases over the barline; anticipate certain changes; and most importantly, start phrases on beats other than 1. 

Take a look at the transcription to see what I mean. More importantly, listen to the recording to see the effect that it creates!

From a melodic point of view, he focuses more on creating a strong melodic statement rather than outlining each change. This is how most improvisers (including Django Reinhardt) approached songs with fast harmonic rhythms. 

The key is to understand the symmetry and the points of tension/resolution within the form. This can be a little bit subjective but as a general rule, you should be thinking in pairs: for instance pairs of 2 bars; pairs of 4 bars; or any kind of similar binary combinations. It is also something that you should try to figure out by ear simply by listening to the melody and the chord changes.

Let’s look at the first 2 bars of the A section: Eb Eb7 / Ab Abm. It starts with the root chord but its duration is cut very short as it immediately becomes an Eb7; the dominant chord of Ab. This is called a temporary key change. As such, it is acceptable to say the transition from Eb7 to Ab is a resolution; and therefore, the Eb and Eb7 can be seen as a brief moment of tension. As a soloist, it means that you can make a melodic statement in the first bar that would then be resolved in the second bar. This is very evident at the beginning of Lollo`s second guitar solo chorus (m.73). He begins with an octave statement that is then answered in the following bar (m.74). 

This is merely one example of how bars can be grouped together. In fact, we can do the same thing with the first 4 bars of the A section; we then end up with multiple subdivisions of tension/resolution. We can then go on to divided the entire A section (8 bars) into two equal parts with even more subdivisions of tension/resolution. 

Think of it as a big hierarchical tree! Note that the moments of tension do not necessarily occur at the beginning; they can occur at the end or even somewhere in the middle. Furthermore within each subdivisions, micro instances of tension/resolution can potentially be found. Use your ears!

Of course, these are merely just words and theory; you can often hear these things for yourself in any good song! The first step is always to try to hear the form (AABA? AB? ABACA? Etc…) and then to hear the symmetry within the form.  Any good musician does this whether they are aware of it or not! And it clearly reflects in their playing as is the case in Lollo’s solo!

The concept of tension/resolution is fairly important. If we consider just the general notion of tension from a melodic/harmonic point of view, it can mean substitution. It is something that Lollo takes advantage of by implying changes that are not in the original tune. If we look at measure 54, he neglects the Ab Abm change and instead outlines an Adim7 arpeggio followed by a Bdim7 arpeggio before resolving it to Eb. This can be theoretically explained in a number of ways, but it is the idea of tension and resolution that is important here! That said, one possible theoretical explanation is that the Adim7 chord is a bluesy substitution of the IV chord (Ab). In the blues, the IV chord is often played as a 7^th chord, in this case Ab7. A common substitution for this IV7 chord is the #IVdim7 (Adim7). The Bdim7, in this case, can be a substitution of Bb7 or Abm. Enough theory! Let’s move on to the good stuff!

Let us focus on the last 4 bars of the A section (note that there is a slight variation at the end of the second A for the modulation to the key of G). These 4 bars are directly taken from the last 4 bars of the Rhythm Changes form. 

Therefore, anything Lollo plays during this section can easily be transposed (with little or no variation) to other Rhythm Changes type songs!

I have taken 4 phrases from Lollo’s solo and transplanted them to the second half of the A section of a Rhythm Changes form in D (ie. Daphné or Belleville). Each example starts off with my own improvisation and then Lollo’s phrases. In my improvised portion, I tried to explicitly demonstrate the concept of tension/resolution; see if you can hear the call and response style phrasing. Practice the examples at a slow tempo, and transpose them to different keys. When you have got them under your fingers, try to use them in your own solos! Don’t be afraid to change them (whether rhythmically or melodically) to suit your style!

 

 

FIG 1 MP3

 

 

 

FIG 2 MP3

 

 

 

FIG 3 MP3

 

 

 

FIG 4 MP3

 

 

Denis Chang for gypsyjazzacademy.com 2010

 

 

Attachment	Size
02 Step Swing 1.mp3	4.12 MB