The Trio
The jazz trio—piano, bass, drums—is pretty much the foundation of the music. There is no rule that you can't make music with smaller or different arrangements: piano-bass duos; guitar trios, and of course solo performances. But the piano trio arrangement is very common, and it usually forms the backbone of larger ensembles, which we'll talk about later. But for now, let's look at how a trio works.
PIANO
In a trio setting a piano is really two instruments. The right hand--the higher notes--generally plays melody lines, whether the melodies are the original song or part of the pianist's improvised solo. The left hand--the lower notes--are usually concerned with the harmonies of a song. In other settings, the piano can fill different roles. Playing solo, in the old "stride piano" style, the left hand plays both bass notes and chords, alternating in a kind of "oom-pah" feeling. The right hand is free to play melodies in the higher notes. (Listen to track ? on the “Trio” playlist.
Some solo pianists will play a "walking bass" part with the left hand, creating that driving rhythm and giving the right hand responsibility for both harmony and melody. (Listen to track ? on the “Trio” playlist.)
But with a bass and drums establishing a steady pulse, the pianist is free to be creative with his own rhythms. She can be spare or maximalist, laid-back or aggressive. It's a part of the pianist's personal signature and style.
Count Basie, most famous for his big bands, was also an elegant pianist who took "spareness" to new levels. Listen to the charming way he plinks and plonks against the steady beat of his drummer and bassist.
Basie's style is distinctive in its economy, and in the way he sparingly defines the harmonies. A more traditional approach is to use the left hand to handle the harmonies (by playing chords) and the right hand to play the song's melody. Listen to the journeyman pianist Red Garland play "What Is This Thing Called Love?" with his trio (Paul Chambers, Bass and Art Taylor, drums).
He starts right in with the melody, the walking bass and drums keeping time. He plays the melody first (through 0:36), with the drums and bass dropping out for a few beats as he makes the transition into the solo section. Then he starts his improvised solo. Throughout, Garland is dividing the duties of his left and right hand. His right hand plays the melody of the song, and then the elegant lines of his improvisation. His left hand, meanwhile, uses chords to articulate the song's harmonies. Unlike the steady one-to-a-beat bass notes, he drops in chords softly here and there (musicians call this "comping"). He does something similar under the bass solo (1:45-2:55), and if you listen closely, you'll here that he plays primarily when the harmony changes, playing one chord, then another to indicate the change.
Following the bass solo, the trio then "trade fours," a way to allow a drummer a chance to solo. The pianist--or another soloist--will play four bars (or measures) and then drop out to let the drummer play the next four bars by himself. The group will repeat this back and forth until it's time for the next solo or to go back to the "head" (main melody of the song).
BASS.
An acoustic bass is shaped like a violin, but it's much, much larger. That means the notes are much, much lower. Unlike a violin, which is usually played with a bow, creating long, sustained notes, a bass is mostly "plucked" when it plays jazz. As you can imagine, that allows the bass to contribute to the rhythm of a song. Listen to the way the bass here sets the beat for the music.
EXAMPLE
In addition to securing the beat, the bass also fills an important harmonic function. Since it's way down at the low end of the pitch spectrum, a bass often articulates one of the key notes of a chord--the "root." In any kind of music--orchestral symphonies or piano sonatas, folk ballads or church hymns--the root is the important anchor of a harmony. And since that's the bass's stomping ground, it’s all about the roots.
That doesn't mean that a bassist is just thumping on the roots of the chords as they parade by. Good bassists know how to move through a harmonic progression that makes it clear and solid but adds their own inventive touch. On a ballad--a song with a slow tempo--a bassist might define the harmony as usual, but occasionally add a flourish during the quiet spots between musical phrases (drummers do this, too).
Listen to the way ??? accompanies Red Garland when he plays the melody of "Makin' Whoopee."
On an up-tempo song, basses will often "walk": play an even string of notes that set the beat and articulate the important "root" harmonies, but also string these roots together with connecting notes that create a sense of flow and movement.
EXAMPLE
DRUMS
A drum set in a jazz trio is more a collection of percussion instruments rather than a single one. Typically--at a minimum--a drum set will consist of a bass drum, a high hat, a snare drum, a ride cymbal (or two) and one or two toms (or more). The bass is played with a foot pedal, and typically keeps a consistent, even beat in a song. On a high hat, two cymbals are attached to a pole that allows the drummer's foot to move them together or apart. You will often here a bass drum (B) and high hat (HH) alternate on the even beats of a song: 1(B)--2(HH)--3(B)--4(HH). MUSIC EXAMPLES?
The snare drum is a relatively high pitched drum that usually sits right in the drummer's lap. Usually, a "snare" sits on the bottom surface of the drum head, giving the drum a buzzy sound. Drummers can lift it away from the skin of the drum with a lever, which removes the buzz and give the drum a tighter, "tuned" sound.
Toms (think "tom-tom") either sit on the floor or are attached to the bass drum to form a kind of arrangement that makes it easy for the drummer to have access to all the instruments. They are "tuned" and have distinctive pitches but aren't necessarily tuned to a specific pitch (like a timpani in an orchestra). If they are played in sequence, you'll hear a familiar cascade from higher to lower pitches (EXAMPLE).
A ride cymbal (or two) is suspended about the drums. It's a single metal disk that can delicately articulate a steady rhythm (example) or smashed for dramatic emphasis.
Jazz drummer usually play using the familiar wooden sticks, but will also use metal brushes (that can be swirled over a snare drum) on quiet songs. And when the end of a song calls for a shimmering climax, they will use mallets--not hammers, but sticks which have soft balls of yarn on the end.
All the instruments in a trio share a tight sense of the rhythm of the song. But the drum is the anchor since it rarely plays "out of time." If you listen closely, you'll usually hear a drummer keep a steady, repetitive pattern with a few of the instruments, but also interact with the other musicians with "chatter"--subtle accents that mark the end of phrases or fill in little gaps in the melody (example).
