It's the Rhythm Section, Stupid: Writing for Zubatto, pt.2

It's Monday morning, November 9th and I'm back here writing about Zubatto Syndicate, so the premiere must have gone well, right? Right! I want to thank everyone who came out to see the show, braving some of the worstest, weirdest, wildest Seattle weather I've seen in a long time. All in all, Thursday night felt like a vote of confidence, from the audience and the players, in the music and the concept of Zubatto. It will take me a little while to figure out the ramifications of that, but it seems certain that there will be more Zubatto in the future. More on this soon, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue sharing some of the different processes I used during the writing of the (first) music for Zubatto. Over the course of the preceding few years, writing music for my quintet, for jazz orchestra, for Nickel & Brass, I was constantly running into the fact that I wasn't devoting nearly enough thought to role of the rhythm section. I think this is a fairly common (bad) habit in jazz composers - we tend to think vertically from the top down, starting with melody or harmony, arranging across all of the other instruments, but often leave the rhythm section (especially the drums) for last, or even to their own devices. Parts for the bass and drums often only get fleshed out when the composer has something very specific in mind, like a distinct bass line or a drum groove - that is, as the exception, and not the rule.

My sense is that it is a combination of inexperience or lack of familiarity/confidence with notating drum parts or rhythm section feels/grooves and the implicit permission to be sparse that is given by the use of lead-sheet style parts in combos of all sizes. It's much easier to give the bass player some chord symbols and slashes than it is to fully develop a line or feel, and, hey, this guy over here does it all the time so it must be okay, right?

I think it can be a completely fine approach, as long as you are prepared to be happy with whatever results might occur and you have a large rehearsal budget. It can be great to leave everything to a particularly creative rhythm section, but even the best players will want to know what you have in mind, especially in low-rehearsal situations (and aren't they all?). Also, if you're going to have to verbally explain it (and if it's not in the part, you will), you'd better think about it just as much as if you were going to write it out. I'm as guilty as anyone of assuming that we'll "figure it out" in rehearsal or that maybe the rhythm section "will have an idea of what to do there." These seemingly time-saving measures only come right back out of rehearsal time, which is generally much more expensive and crucial than your own writing time. Plus, if you have something written out, the players can still come up with something cooler. On the other hand, if you don't do your legwork for rhythm section parts, there's the possibility of blank, frustrated looks and wasted time.

For me, unfamiliarity also played a strong role in my "strategy" for rhythm section arrangement. I've often just assumed that a bass player or drummer is much better suited to figuring out a good groove for a tune than I am. Another composer that I admire once told me, in reaction to this, "That's not always true. You're the idea guy. You know what you want." Or at least, I should know.

Ultimately, I came to the realization that I needed to start erring on the side of more rhythm section detail in my music, and that I needed to do substantial work and research to become as comfortable working with rhythm as I am with harmony.

For Zubatto, I wanted to incorporate elements of all kinds of music, especially rock and hip-hop, a mission which provided a perfect jumping off point for a new approach in rhythm section writing.

For starters, I did a ton of research. I read and worked out of as many rhythm books for drummers and rhythm section as I could find, both "collecting" grooves or parts that I liked, and studying the notation. I also transcribed many songs (and especially drum parts) that had incorporation potential.

The next step, was to flip my writing process on it's head, literally. For nearly every idea I had on this project, I started writing with the rhythm section. Beginning with a drum part/feel, I would add a bass part next, and then write melodies on top of those that worked rhythmically. Whenever I had a melodic or harmonic idea first, I would work to marry it to a rhythm section idea almost immediately.

This is where the mockup process described in part one was vastly helpful. It's easy for me to work on music vertically (each stack of harmony in time) or horizontally (each line over time), but it's a little harder for me to do both at the same time, besides very slowly on the piano. To get immediate feedback on how these ideas - drums, bass lines, harmony, and melody or melodies - were working together at tempo was invaluable.

The results, to me, are striking. This music has strong forward momentum, and a real sense of motion that I haven't always heard in my own work. Writing on top of drum and bass ideas inspired funkier, and ultimately more interesting rhythms in the melodic lines as well. Learning to write drum parts makes you a better writer for everything else - that's my bold declaration.

Rehearsals were also greatly improved, as the rhythm section was often up and running with relative ease, which in turn really helps all of the musicians find their place in the groove.

Finally, I am about a zillion times more confident writing for the rhythm section today that I was back in June, when I started. I plan to keep working in this fashion, especially when I begin to work on new Zubatto material which is already beginning to percolate.

I'll be back with part three in this series, dealing with melody and harmony, soon!