From Downbeat
(Advance Music, Rottenburg, Germany; 173 pp.; paper) is a major treatise for the contempory improviser. In a day and age when new sounds quickly become old, when yesterday's dissonance becomes today's consonance, players are continually searching for a new and more personal means of expression. Here Liebman presents an overview of chromatic ideas over conventional diatonic situations by way of chord substitution, superimposition, and pedal points. He discusses melodic devlopment and variation along with principles of tension and release, tonal and non-tonal chromaticism, and the development of harmony from simple diatonic progressions through complex upper structure triads and beyond. The books is divided into two sections:
The first contains the theoretical explanations with examples; the second contains miscellaneous examples of chromaticism from jazz and classical repertoire, transcriptions, complex reharmonizations of various standards, original compositions, voicings and more. The most exciting thing about the material and presentation is that everyone who works through it will come out with their own personal language. Depending on your background, personal taste, and sense of adventure, it could simply add a little spice to your playing, or catapult you into a whole new world.
This is material for the advanced player. DB
By David Demsey
David Liebman
A Chromatic Approach
to Jazz Harmony and Melody
Advance Music, Rottenberg, Germany
Caris Music Services
RD# 7 Box 7621G
Stroudsburg, PA 18360
176 pp, $25.00
The following is a review from the Saxophone Journal.
For the purpose of this book, Liebman defines the term "chromatic" as "melodies and harmonies which can coexist with, or replace given key centers." Liebman's A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody is laid out as a theory text, including dozens of musical examples, seventeen chapters divided into two main parts. For jazz musicians, at least, it picks up where Vincent Persichetti's widely used "classical" text Twentieth Century Harmony leaves off. Traditional common practice theory books have the advantage of being able to organize and categorize music from past eras, with historical perspective in finding what composers were the most well-known and what techniques were actually aberrations, though they may have seemed important at the time. However, much like Persichetti, Liebman has the difficult task of codifying and describing harmonic techniques that are current, still in the development process. While it is pretty much unanimously thought that the music of the bebop era is the "common practice" of jazz and should be part of the standard literature, many musicians are still attempting to understand the harmonically freer music of Coltrane and others since the late fifties.
Liebman does an admirable and scholarly job in advancing this understanding. He answers the question of what music is the most appropriate to study and what music will withstand the test of test by viewing the answer from as many perspectives as possible. Rather than center on one "historical" composer, the majority of the examples are from Liebman himself, often purposely in the style of other individuals. Part One: Text and Examples begins by defining the terms and the concept of chromaticism in general and through musical history. He then elaborates on methods to achieve both chordal and linear chromaticism, beginning with harmonic substitution, superimposition, delayed and suspended cadences, modal substitution, and other concepts. For each section, there are several short (4 to 8 measure) melodic and/or harmonic examples by Liebman as appropriate. When all possibilities of harmony-based techniques have been exhausted, including voicing possibilities and melodic techniques, Liebman finishes the first part with interval categories, i.e., playing atonally and composing improvisationally in the same manner as a serialist composer by constructing pitch sets.
Part Two: Miscellaneous Musical Examples first looks at seventeen longer examples of chromaticism for analysis, ranging from an excerpt from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations to portions of works by Chopin, Scriabin, Schonberg, Ives, Coltrane, Shorter, Corea, Hancock, and Tyner. An analysis of three of Liebman's own complete improvised solos essentially closes out the presentation of new material. The final chapters look at different perspectives of playing melodies: Pattern and Variational Techniques, Harmonization of A Chromatic Line, Reharmonization of Standards, Analysis of Complex Chords, and Suspended Chord Terminology, as well as an analysis of three original Liebman compositions, and compendiums of melodic lines and voicings.
As with all releases by Advance Music, the packaging is beautifully done, including the printing, the heavy paper, the musical engraving, the cover art, and the binding (although it would be less awkward to have a spiral binding rather than a paperback spine which is almost impossible to keep open on a music rack). Used as a resource reference and an anthology for study and practice, or as an advanced college jazz theory text, Liebman's book is nothing short of monumental. Using it as a "reader" and mistaking it for the type of nonfiction jazz book which is proliferating bookstores today would be a waste of time. With a saxophone and a piano nearby and a large dose of time and commitment, this book breaks important new ground in the documentation and teaching of modern jazz harmony and freer forms of improvisation.