Back To The Island

Many of you are aware that I have several hours of rehearsal tapes of Leon's 11-piece band I was in during the Fall of 1981. I've been transferring all of those tapes to a digital format recently. 

Here's a gem I found among those tapes: Leon's interpretation of Paul McCartney's, "Yesterday." 

Please be aware that these are recordings of a rehearsal. The audio fidelity isn't high, but it's good enough it enjoy what Leon came up with in the form of an arrangement for "Yesterday." 

And what a poignant concept. Leon wanted this one to be almost elegiac, quietly mournful. To get that feeling, Leon limited the instrumentation on this one to just piano, violin (Jonathan Yudkin), and trombone (Yours Truly) to provide a short interlude between the vocal sections. The overall result is a type of chamber music in the form of art song, in many ways analogous to the concepts of Schubert and Brahms, especially in the piano accompaniment Leon plays here. 

Leon instructed me to play the melody in the warm and mellow middle register of the trombone. He told me to play as if I were singing it and to hear the words in my mind as I played. Leon told Jonathan to improvise a countermelody all around my trombone solo to provide an added tenderness to intensify the feeling of yearning in the melody on trombone. The vocal parts are sung by Leon, Jack Wessel, and Bob Britt. 

Leon's concept on this song worked beautifully as you'll hear.

Leon - Yesterday 1981

A humorous moment during a rehearsal with Leon Russell (Early October, 1981). 

As you'll hear, Leon is talking about how the end of the instrumental solos should dovetail into his vocal. He gets a little whimsical about it by saying that the solos should get a little "boring" at the end in order to make the audience want him to sing. Juke Logan then makes a humorous comment about it which led me to play a really schmaltzy and boring interpretation of the first part of the old song, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," by the great Swing Era trombonist, Tommy Dorsey. 

It gets a laugh out of Leon and the other guys. Leon's last comment is really clever, too.

A Humorous Moment With Leon

October 1981: A spontaneous and free-floating Blues Jam in rehearsal with Leon. Listen to his comments at the 3:06 mark to get an idea of how Leon processed his ideas through a collaborative jam session.

Leon Jam - Leon on piano, Trombone with Plunger and Harmonica (Blues Harp)

Early October, 1981: We were working on the vocals for Leon's arrangement of "Early in the Mornin'" by Ray Charles. 

At the beginning of this excerpt, you'll hear the vocalists struggling (I was one of them) to achieve balance and intonation (tuning) with a rhythmic figure over the words, "in the mornin'." We were struggling because those words over that rhythmic figure were difficult to sing with the proper rhythm. 

Listen to the way Leon fixes it. He does it with the addition of one word: "Yes."

After Leon told us to begin the figure rhythmic figure with the word, "yes," we sang it and the rhythms lined up in synchrony. Also listen to how we responded with delight and how that suffused our phrasing with expressiveness, better balance, and more accurate intonation.

Leon didn't have to mention any of those musical facets because they all fell into place naturally with the addition of that one word. This is but one example of what made Leon a great rehearsal director.

Leon Excerpt- "Yes" In The Mornin'

Early October, 1981: Leon Russell rehearsal. 

To those of you who have been following my posts featuring excerpts of rehearsals with Leon, I'm sure you are becoming aware to certain degree of how Leon conducted rehearsals. Here is another of his rehearsal techniques. I call it "Explore & Incubate." I'll explain what I mean by that by using the example of how Leon rehearsed 'Early in the Mornin' by Ray Charles.

After Leon had worked with us in the organization of his arrangement, he inconspicuously stopped talking and just allowed us to explore the melodic figure he'd been rehearsing with us. 

What emerged naturally during that phase of rehearsing this song was how each of us explored that figure individually, but then naturally and spontaneously started working together to harmonize that figure according to "Brewer's Law," that is, harmonizing to secure the prominence of the melodic figure sounding above the notes that harmonize it from below. If you listen carefully, you will hear Jonathan Yudkin on violin harmonizing that figure with me on trombone. 

The trombone sounds you hear from me on this excerpt involve the use of a plunger like you see in the photo of here of "Tricky" Sam Nanton, the great trombonist who played in Duke Ellington's Orchestra during the 1930s & 40s. All trombonists using this technique owe a great debt to Tricky Sam.

The incubation phase of Leon's approach here ends when he draws us back in after allowing us to explore the figure for about 5 minutes. We were still in the preparatory stage of this arrangement as revealed by the little "clams" (mistakes) that some of us make (including me)when Leon gives the count-off. It does come together, however, with the unique sound "colors" created by the balance and blend of this unusual combination of instruments.

Finally, you my wonder how I was making a couple of strange sounds on the trombone here. One of those is called "multi-phonics," which is created by humming through the trombone while playing a note at the same time. Because of an acoustic phenomenon, it actually creates three notes sounding at the same time. 

The other buzzing sound you hear is created on the trombone by buzzing the lips while pulling the mouthpiece slightly off the lower lip. When I first made this sound in rehearsal, Leon looked over at me with an impish grin on his face and said, "That's kind of a good sound." Of course, that made me smile!

Leon Rehearsal Excerpt - Instruments W Trombone Plunger Multiphonics

October 1981: 

For those of you who have been following my posts featuring the sound recordings of how Leon rehearsed the 11-piece band I was in during the Fall of 1981, here is the complete performance of "Early in the Mornin'," the song by Ray Charles that Leon chose to work up during the first days of those rehearsals. 

If you have been following my posts featuring the audio recordings of how Leon arranged and rehearsed this song, I think you'll enjoy how it turned out after all that rehearsal. I think you'll hear, too, how the isolated, individual parts we worked on integrate into a seamless unity on this complete performance of the song.

The audio fidelity of this recording is "Low-Fi" because it was recorded on a boom box. But, I think your "mind's ear" will fill in the higher fidelity because you've been listening to how Leon put it all together. I think you'll also hear how we as a band expressed Leon's intentions for the song in the end. 
The solos are difficult to hear, but there is a harmonica solo followed by a trombone solo on this recording after Leon sings.

And Leon SINGS! He really goes for it here!

Enjoy!

Leon - Early In The Mornin' (song performed in its entirety)

October 1981. A rehearsal recording of Leon Russell on his "Roll Away the Stone" when I was in his band.

Leon - Roll Away The Stone 1981

1981: A rehearsal tape of Leon and the band.

Leon Russell 1981 Out In The Woods

Steve Ripley 1980 "Night Time Lover" (horn parts by Paul Brewer)

Jimmy Dorsey - Just Swingin'

Robin Connell: In my living room with my Chickering iphone 'memo' recorder. This is why I ALWAYS want to play a piano (instead of a keyboard). 

I'm Old Fashioned Sound Cloud

A great solo by Carl Fontana at a jam session in 1968. Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Ed Thigpen in the rhythm section. 

Carl Fontana - Straight No Chaser

1985. Jeff Johnson's beautiful ballad composition, "Persona." Jeff is also the bassist on this composition with Paul Brewer on trombone, Peter Krauss on keyboards, and Paul Bowman on drums.

Persona

Medley For Mike Finale

Bob The Bopper

04 Benevolence (GRJO)

From "The Hustler" This cue is called "Eddie Hurt" (Jimmy Cleveland on trombone)

Phil Wilson

The Hurt Brothers

Dancing Dashiell Render

Play the Bari, Gary! (Update with added bars at the end))

Once in a While _ Frank Rosolino _ 1968

Zweifacher Zeitgeist (drums added)

1981: This is an excerpt of Yours Truly playing the blues with Leon Russell during a rehearsal.

Leon And Paul Play The Blues

Another Jeff Johnson composition: Tall Stranger.

05 5. Tall Stranger

I composed this in honor of the great Wayne Shorter. I wrote this arrangement for the Interlochen Summer Jazz Faculty Septet in 2010. 
Trumpet/Flugelhorn - Rob Smith
Alto Saxophone - Dave Kay
Tenor Saxophone - Bill Sears
Trombone - Paul Brewer
Guitar - Frank Portolese
Piano - Luke Gillespie
Bass - Rodney Whitaker
Drums - Dave Hardman

Perhance To Dream

This is an excerpt of a rehearsal in late April, 1991. J. J. Johnson is directing the rehearsal. At one point, J. J. stops the band and asks me how I knew to play a certain nuance in the arrangement that was not marked in the part (I was playing lead trombone and was 39 years old at the time). I replied that I'd had the album since I was 14 years old and had listened to it endlessly over the years. It was quite the happy exchange!

At one point you can hear J. J. say to me (at the 00:24 mark), "Bless you. Bless you" And then at the 00:38 mark: "Paul, you're way ahead of us, Man!" 

To which, I reply, "No, YOU are!" Sweet laughter all around.

Paul Brewer

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