Bye Bye Blackbird by Keith Jarrett - How Jack DeJohnette played it - Drum Transcription

Описание: Welcome to a new video from my jazz transcription series. In this video, I show a transcription and performance of the first 72 bars of the song “Bye Bye Blackbird” from the Keith Jarrett Trio's 1991 album. Drummer Jack DeJohnette's approach, sound design, and conceptual decisions continue to influence many jazz drummers to this day.

The piece itself is a jazz standard from 1926, composed by Ray Henderson with lyrics by Mort Dixon, and has been interpreted in countless versions over the decades. In its original form, “Bye Bye Blackbird” was a popular entertainment song that only began to serve increasingly as improvisational material with developments in the 1940s and 1950s. The Jarrett Trio's 1991 recording occupies a special place in this long history of interpretations.

The recording was made on October 12, 1991, at Power Station Studio in New York, just a few days after the death of Miles Davis. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette, who had all worked with Davis at different times, met in this studio to record songs associated with Miles Davis' career. The result was released by ECM Records in 1993 and is now considered one of the trio's most important albums. The homage to Davis is reflected not only in the selection of pieces, but also in the aesthetic approach of the recording: reduced, concentrated, clear, and emotionally intense.

Critics particularly praised the “unobtrusive but flawlessly played” selection of material and the clear, unobtrusive texture of the album. The studio aesthetics also convey an almost club-like intimacy that is ideal for analyzing the smallest differences in sound.

Jack DeJohnette's musicality, characterized by both rhythmic inventiveness and a keen melodic understanding, has set him apart on the international jazz scene for decades. His work with Miles Davis, including on the recordings Bitches Brew, Black Beauty, Live-Evil, and Big Fun, had a lasting influence on jazz and led to a new understanding of how drums can be used in a modern jazz context. DeJohnette was considered someone who thought far beyond the function of accompaniment and treated the drum set as a melodic instrument. This approach is also clearly audible in “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Jack DeJohnette's rhythmic and dynamic accents stand out in particular, without overlaying the trio's melodic line. His work is based less on spectacular effects and more on a keen sense of balance, timing, and interaction.

My transcription is intended to serve as a basis for understanding DeJohnette's playing style. Particularly striking is DeJohnette's ability to place variations within the groove in such a way that an organic movement is created that is neither rigid nor arbitrary.

If you want to study the transcription of “Bye Bye Blackbird”, you can find it on my Patreon page:
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There you’ll get access to a growing library of jazz drum transcriptions, including pieces by Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, and many more.

You can also find related material in my book “Jazz Standards on the Drumset”, published by Hudson Music, which includes transcriptions.
📘 https://hudsonmusic.com/product/jazz-...

🎧 Thank you for watching! I hope this transcription inspires you to listen, study, and play with curiosity and depth.

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Song Info

Band/Artist: Keith Jarrett
Album: Bye Bye Blackbird
Songwriter: Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon
Release date: April 1993
Label: ECM

Photo Credits (thumbnail):
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Attribution: Oliver Abels, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons