Tears of Joy: Liner Notes

[liner notes are for edumacational use only]

This album was recorded May 20-23, 1971, at Basin Street West in San Francisco, climaxing a three-month tour of the United States.

For some time I have wanted to expand the colors of my band, to develop a broader spectrum of musical resources and emotions.

This tour provided an opportunity to experiment with a new concept.

On the previous tour (November, 1970) we had already started using a woodwind quartet within the big band format. I also wanted to try some ideas I had for strings, so I added a string quartet to the band. Since I had a woodwind quartet and a string quartet, why not have a brass quintet also?

People spend whole evenings listening to a brass quintet, a woodwind or string quartet, so I reasoned that having ALL of these in the context of a big band should give us a fantastic variety of colors from which to draw. We also have all of the possibilities of a jazz band, from a trio right up to the big band, with addition of extra percussion, too.

I speak for the other composers on the album as well as myself when I say the challenge and sound possibilities of the combination have opened up new vistas of musical thought.

When we added the strings there was the problem of how they would fit within the volume level of a big band. We were fortunate to find the answer in the Barcus-Berry Transducer System, which gives incredible fidelity (the recorded sound is taken directly from this) and can give the strings so much power they can cover the whole band!

This album represents a variety of moods, ideas and sounds from the folk rhythms of Bulgarian Bulge, the down-home feeling of Blues In Elf, the somber mood of Loss to the culmination in Strawberry Soup-a virtuoso feature number where you can hear each section of the band playing separately as well as in combinations with the others.

SIDE ONE

Tears of Joy (Don Ellis)

This piece came about by accident one night during an electric trumpet solo on "Concerto For Trumpet" [perhaps he means "Variations for Trumpet"? -Matt]. The ring modulator was tuned to a low G and I happened to play a B and a whole chord appeared! I fooled around with it for a while and then the theme of the number emerged as a samba-type thing in 7.

We needed at least selection for the album under our usual ten to twenty-five minutes so I decided to expand what had happened into a little piece. The shouts at the beginning happened spontaneously the first time we did it and have since become a part of the piece.

5/4 Getaway (Don Ellis)

While out on tour I felt we needed a new opener for our concerts, so during a short break in the tour I wrote part of this piece. The sax soli was added a few weeks before the recording, and the drum routine was worked out on a plane flight.

The way the composition turned out surprised me. It's a jazz feel, but in 5/4, and the chord progression is similar to a pattern which has been around since some the earliest days of jazz. There have been many famous jazz tunes written on it-you may be able to identify motives from several of them in the piece.

The order of the drum solos in Ron, me and Ralph. Ralph wrote the unison drums fills which appear when the whole band comes in after the drum solos. The high note at the end of my solo is dedicated to Roy Stevens.

Bulgarian Bulge (Don Ellis)

This was originally recorded on our "Underground" album, but it has since been transformed into a showcase for our new pianist, Milcho Leviev. And therein lies a story:

A few years ago I received a letter from a man in Bulgaria who had heard the band on Willis Conover's "Voice of America" jazz programs. We struck up a correspondence and he sent me some recordings of Bulgarian folk music.

The records really turned me around. Here were folk musicians playing DANCE music in time signatures I had never heard of! I was so impressed I transcribed the number that became Bulgarian Bulge.

I later found out that my correspondent was a musician and he sent me some scores and tapes of his work.
It turned out that he, Milcho Leviev, was the leading jazz composer (as well as film scorer) in Bulgaria.

I asked him to join my band. It was impossible at the time, but just before this tour we were able to arrange to bring him to this country. He arrived the first night of rehearsals and came directly from the plane to the rehearsal and proceeded to amaze the entire band.

This is probably the first time a jazz musician has come along to whom unusual meters are his natural, native music.
The Bulge is in 33 (and 36); it's just like 4/4 to Milcho.

Get It Together (Sam Falzone)

Sam Falzone wrote this piece and plays the tenor solo on it. I asked him to describe it in his own words:
"The idea of this chart came to me in '65 (when I first met Don). The chart came together when Don asked me to write something experimental for a string quartet idea he had for the band. (This was six years later.)

"It's very simply constructed. It has two main themes which I tried to write contrapuntally (in a symphonic fashion).

"The fast 11/4 section is a G dorian blues and the rhythm section really got it on. The basic theme is built in fourths and the second theme is the Get It Together theme, which I intend to put words to someday."

SIDE TWO

Quiet Longing (Don Ellis)

I took last summer off to write an unusual science fiction musical titled "Future: Tense!!!" and this is one of the songs from it--it's a love song.

Blues in Elf (Don Ellis)

Milcho Leviev and the string quartet are featured in this down-home type blues in 11 (or 3 2/3)/4. Milcho has a rather strange sense of humor and only he would ever think of playing Beethoven's Moonlight sonata and relating it to the blues!

Loss (Don Ellis)

In this ballad in 7/8 we try to create the mood implied by the title.

SIDE THREE

How's This For Openers? (Don Ellis)

The main meter here is a fast 25 (divided 22323, 2223222) with a bridge in 27. The trombone solo is by Jim Sawyer and the alto solo by Lonnie Shetter. The band has become famous (or infamous) for our drum routines and this time I decided to write one that was soft and pointillistic, often moving quickly between the drummers. The order is me, Ralph, Ron and Lee.

Samba Bajada (Hank Levy)

Hank Levey has been writing for the band since the beginning. This time turned up with a samba in 9. You'll hear some incredible bass drum work by Ralph Humphrey.

After my solo the whole trumpet section is out front doing their thing.

SIDE FOUR

Strawberry Soup (Don Ellis)

Don Heckman, the noted critic and musician, once said to me that he had noticed most of the things we did in unusual meters were basically additive rhythms, that we hadn't explored dividing the meters up into smaller or larger units (within the original). This piece is dedicated to him.

It is entirely in 9 (except the coda) and the basic 9 is 9/4 with two 9/8 bars (3222, 3222) in each 9/4 bar. Occasionally the 9/4 meter is stretched into a 9/2 bar (two bars of 9/4), so there are at least three levels of 9 going on.

The composition opens with a cello solo by Christine Ermacoff, followed by the string quartet. They are joined by the woodwind quintet (Jon Clarke, oboe; Sam Falzone, clarinet; Fred Selden, flute; Lonnie Shetter, alto sax) improvising freely.
The piano solo by Milcho Leviev is backed by Lee Pastora on conga and Dennis Parker on bass.

Doug Bixby leads the brass ensemble on tuba and Jim Sawyer solos on trombone with me on drums behind him.
Dennis Parker plays the bass solo leading into the string quartet passage. Ralph Humphrey is on drums behind my trumpet solo and Ron Dunn takes over from the sax soli.

The drums soli later on is accompanied by the horns and the order is me, Lee, Ralph and Ron. At the end of the soli you'll hear each drummer playing a different subdivision of 9 which culminates in a flurry of 16th notes combining four bars of 9/16 into one bar of 9/4.

The coda wraps it all up in the ONLY way possible!

Euphoric Acid (Fred Selden)

Fred Selden has a penchant for pithy, cryptic (mostly pithy-not too much cryptic) and he says this title "suggests a good feeling or natural high on life, people, music, existence."
It features Fred on alto sax and flute.

-Don Ellis, June 1971