The Jazz Sax & Improvisation Blog of Saxophonist Bobby Stern

Monk's Bemsha Swing - A Self-Transcription

1/28/2021

Toot My Own Horn Dept.
Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing": A Self-Transcription

This post features a self-recorded and transcribed tenor saxophone solo on Thelonious Monk's well known classic. “Bemsha Swing”.

As I hadn't recorded myself in quite a while, I was anxious to turn this into a project. Fortunately, the results passed quality control and I can happily share them here.

The backing track used here is from “Thelonious Monk Favorites – 10 Classic Tunes” (Hal Leonard Jazz Play-Along, Vol. 91). It features the great Ronnie Mathews on piano, Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass, and Monk's former drummer - Ben Riley. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by the legendary RVG – Rudy Van Gelder – at his studio, where so many iconic recordings where made. Don Sickler, a name associated with many such projects, produced the session. What more could one ask for in a backing track?

“Bemsha Swing” was composed by Monk and his close friend, Barbados born drummer Denzil Best - and was first recorded in trio (with drummer Art Blakey and bassist Gary Mapp) on December 18, 1952 for Bob Weinstock's Prestige label. Monk would record several subsequent versions through the years, as well as many other versions being recorded by many other artists.

The original title given at the session was actually “Bimsha Swing” - alluding to the island of Barbados also being known by its inhabitants as “Bimshire”. Over time, the spelling gradually morphed into “Bemsha”.

The tune itself owns a slightly modified 16-bar, AABA song form, with what is essentially a I–VI7–II7-V7 chord structure (see below for Monk's clever tritone subs) in C Maj concert (D Maj tenor key), modulating to F (G) for the B-section.

A basic 2-bar I-VI-II-V (in Tenor key) looks like:

D B7 | E7 A7 |

Chord changes for the first four bar A–section of “Bemsha”. Monk's tritone substitutions (*).

D B7 | Bb7* Eb7* | D F7* | E7 Eb7* |

Repeat with 2nd ending:

D B7 | Bb7* Eb7* | D C7 | Bb7 Ab7 |

The bridge (B-section), up a Perfect 4th:

G E7 | Eb7* Ab7* | G F7 | Eb7 A7 |

Last A-section:

D B7 | Bb7* Eb7* | D Eb Maj7#11 | -- ||

As for the tenor solo itself, I've always maintained the importance of recording and critically listening to myself - simply to hear what I sound like and to monitor my progress. That includes trying out new things and concepts, and hearing if they work or not. Even after many years of playing, this remains important to me.

For mainly technical reasons, I'd been unable to do this for a minute, so I was happy to be able to continue. Furthermore, the act of transcribing my own solo in this case, yielded a number of insights.

Although it comes as no surprise, one of those insights is my frequent use of Melodic Minor material. After numerous blog posts, as well as 3 published books on the subject, Melodic Minor seems to be pretty much ingrained as part of my DNA.

One method of expressing any 7-note scale or mode - especially with groups of 16th notes - is through 1235 type "digital" patterns, which is also made frequent use of in this solo.

Ex. 1 below, from the end of the 3rd chorus (mm. 46-47, ca. 1:47) illustrates a digital finger pattern derived from Bb Melodic Minor, ascending in 16-notes from the 4th scale degree and repeating up an octave. The chords Bb7 and Eb7, can be distilled to A7 - the dominant of D Maj - to which it resolves.

Ex. 1 - Ascending Bb Melodic Minor digital pattern - Dominant to Tonic.

Ex. 2 below, from the top of the 5th chorus (mm. 65-69, ca. 2:19), shows further use of Melodic Minor, combined with Major Pentatonic and Blues Scale material. Digital patterns are in evidence a well - most notably in the 4th bar where Bb Melodic Minor once again functions melodically as dominant to tonic, as in the previous example.

This arcing V-I melodic cadence, where each chord need not be articulated as such, happens numerous times throughout the solo. The reason this works is that both the harmonic motion and the melodic line are building tension, via slightly different paths, towards the same resolution - namely D Maj (C Maj concert).

Ex. 2 - 4-measure, 16-note line containing pentatonic and blues scale material, as well as Melodic Minor digital patterns.

Another tried and true technique (Ex. 3), in this case specific to saxophonists, is the use of alternate fingerings, which slightly changes the tone or "color" of a particular pitch compared to the regular fingering for that note.

The graphic below illustrates (with an "+") the notes "colored" by these fingerings, and which alternate with the regular ones. The scale in bars 80-82 (ca. 2:46) is a descending F Maj Pentatonic.

I remember reading somewhere - it might have been a Coltrane interview - that Monk himself could play an alternate fingering on most any note on the saxophone.

Ex. 3 - Descending sequence with alternate fingerings (+).