16. Teddy Wilson Sextet, “Honeysuckle Rose” (Fats Waller-Andy Razaf)

For use with Lesson #17.

 

Style: Swing

Personnel: Emmett Berry trumpet, Edmund Hall clarinet, Benny Morton trombone, Teddy Wilson piano, Leroy “Slam” Stewart bass, “Big Sid” Catlett drums. Recorded in 1944.

Issued on Associated Transcription.

Reissued on Storyville STCD 8236.

This recording, led by the definitive swing pianist Teddy Wilson, presents a jam session using traditional New Orleans instrumentation and polyphony, but with a pronounced swing rhythm and phrasing, and arranged passages. New Orleanian Edmund Hall’s edgy, urgent clarinet style (heard also in Track 14) fits well into Chicago and swing settings. Wilson varies the rhythmic flow by using a ragtime-derived “boom-chick” pattern (bass notes alternating with chords) behind the clarinet solo, then “comping” (rhythmically sparse chording) behind the trombone solo. Slam Stewart solos in his trademark style, humming in unison with his improvised bowed bass lines.

Sequence for this track

0:00 Piano intro (4 bars)

0:05 Ensemble chorus (mostly improvised)

0:40 Piano solo

1:15 Clarinet solo 16 bars, trombone solo 16 bars

1:50 Trumpet solo

2:26 Bass solo (with piano/clarinet riffs)

3:02 Key change—ensemble riffs (arranged) 16 bars, piano solo 8 bars, ensemble 8 bars (4 bars arranged, 4 bars improvised)

3:37 Tag: piano/drums 2 bars

Teddy Wilson