An analysis of Ray Brown's Bebop idiom and modal walking Bass line in three selected tunes from Way Out West by Sonny Rollins

Abstract

Ray Brown was one of the most influential jazz bass players of all time. His contribution to the bebop scene in the 1940s still has a great impact on modern bassists. In 1957, Brown collaborated with Sonny Rollins in the Way Out West album. The concept of this album follows the term pianoless trio --a band that lacks accompaniment of a harmonic instrument--which caused bass players to have a more crucial role. This paper aims to study Brown's playing throughout three selected compositions from the Way Out West album: I'm An Old Cowhand, Solitude and There Is No Greater Love. For each composition, the following steps were taken : 1) analysis of Ray Brown's implementation of the bebop idiom (bebop scales, melodic embellishment) in the improvisation. 2) comprehension of Ray Brown's Mixolydian and Lydian Dominant modal usages in the walking bass line 3) application of Ray brown's implementation of the bebop idiom in the improvisation and modal usages in walking bass lines to a new original composition in a master's recital. The first outcome is in regards to Brown's bebop idiom approach. In Brown's solo section, he connected various types of bebop scales in order to construct a long phrase and various types of melodic embellishment for his melodic framework. Secondly, he approached modal walking bass lines by constructing them from a tonic and directing them to the important notes of each mode. Moreover, these approaches can be utilized by musicians to improve their playing and composing by learning from the researcher's approach to an original composition.