01.01 listening observation analysis

This was one of those sessions where nothing had been planned prior to coming into the studio. Walter Page and Jo Jones were messing around and on comes Freddy Green, Count Basie, and then Lester comes in. They just decide to do these things. These were strictly off-the-cuff performances and rate today as monstrous classics. 

- Oscar Treadwell on Lester Leaps In (1)

Stage 01 begins with an interpretive analysis and distillation of the underlying structural and thematic components of a masterpiece jazz composition. The jazz vehicle chosen for listening, observation and analysis is the master take swing performance entitled Lester Leaps In, recorded in 1939 by Count Basie and the Kansas City Seven.(2)

Each student generates a written and graphical analysis of the entire musical composition.

We are looking at the exercise as architects, not musicologists, therefore, a strict technical musical analysis is unnecessary. 

To help you understand the basics of this music and assist you with this task, download audio, animation, and graphic files (listed below) each representing different scales of analysis.

• Discover and recognize major relationships and underlying musical structures. Diagram relationships between choruses. 
• guide for listening/glossary
• article by Jerry Coker, Listening to Jazz. 
• Repeatedly listen to Lester Leap In. 
• Use the linear arrangement chart to understand the overall structure of the song. 
• linear-graph 1
• linear-graph 2
• Lester leaps In first vehicle statement
• Lester leaps In the second statement
• Lester leaps In bridge (B-section)

due: Wed. Aug. 29 - 8:00 am; pinup on the studio wall the written and graphical analysis; be prepared to verbally present and answer questions.

(1) Oscar Treadwell, from his public radio program The Eclectic Stop Sign on WGUC-FM, Cincinnati, Ohio. (2) Recorded for Vocation, CBS Records from Epic LN 3107, New York, NY, November 5, 1939.