Two Piano Intros
I spent some time learning "Nobody Else But Me," a standard written by Jerome Kern for the revival of Showboat in the '40s. I heard it for the first time in a while earlier this week at Smalls, and made a note to check it out. The tune isn't played too often, to my knowledge, although it might be getting more popular: Gerald Clayton recorded a solo version of it on Bond: The Paris Sessions, and it's a more novel alternative to the countless other standards in Eb (It Could Happen to You, My Shining Hour, There Will Never Be Another You, etc.). The version I'm most familiar with is on Nobody Else But Me, which features Stan Getz's quartet with Gary Burton in the '60s. Browsing through my iTunes library, though, I came across another Getz version from 1953, with Jimmy Rowles on piano, Bob Whitlock on bass (?), and Max Roach on drums. Incredibly swinging, and the piano intro is just perfect.
Getz, as a rule, just about always had outstanding pianists in his bands. It was only listening to this recording of "Nobody Else But Me" today that I realized how many great piano intros there are on older Getz recordings. Hopefully I'll make this a mini-project and try to transcribe more of them. I thought I'd do one more today, which happens to also be another Jerome Kern tune that features Mose Allison (yes, the same Mose Allison best-known for his blues singing/piano playing).
Does anybody know of books of transcribed piano introductions? It's really an art form, and I imagine that pianists spend a lot of time studying introductions as a craft in itself.
It looks like the version with Getz and Rowles is from an album called "Stan Getz and the Cool Sounds."
ReplyDeleteYou do not understand how long I have been wanting to learn or know the components of this version of "Nobody Else but Me". I have it on the 2 disc "Artistry of Stan Getz" CD. When I was first trying to discover more jazz, this was the song that embodied what I was searching for. I wanted more like this. I was always surprised, like yourself, that it wasn't more well known. Thank you so much for transcribing it! Thank you! Thank you! It has felt so good learning it and playing it after 20+ years of wanting to. Any chance of taking a crack at the piano solo?
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that! Maybe one day -- just re-listened, it's a nice, concise Rowles solo. I also realized there's an alternate take (naturally with a different improvised introduction).
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