Jazz Quoting

[MC]

You quite often hear a jazz soloist playing one tune drift off into the
melody of another tune for a few bars, then return. They might, for
example, be playing Night and Day, and improvise a few bars of Take The
A Train in the middle.

I asked a singer friend if there's a recognized term for that and she
suggested "quoting."

Can anyone confirm, or suggest a better alternative?

--

"If you can, tell me something happy."
- Marybones

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:14:53 -0400, MC <cope...@mapca.inter.net> wrote:

>You quite often hear a jazz soloist playing one tune drift off into the
>melody of another tune for a few bars, then return. They might, for
>example, be playing Night and Day, and improvise a few bars of Take The
>A Train in the middle.
>
>I asked a singer friend if there's a recognized term for that and she
>suggested "quoting."
>
>Can anyone confirm, or suggest a better alternative?

I've met "quote" used for what you've described and for similar in other
musical genres. It seems to be an established term. I wouldn't be in the
least surprised to find that there are colloquialisms of the jocular
variety, perhaps "borrowing", "stealing", and [try a thesaurus].

Wikipedia has an article on "Musical quotation". It deals first with
quoting in composed works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_quotation

The final paragraph is:

Quotation is also a tradition in jazz performance, especially of the
bebop era. Charlie Parker, for instance, quoted Stravinsky's Rite of
Spring in his solo on "Repetition", and "Country Gardens" on his
Verve recording of "Lover Man"; Dizzy Gillespie quotes David
Raksin's "Laura" on "Hot House" during the Massey Hall concert.
Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins are especially famed among jazz fans
for their addiction to quotation. Often the use of musical quotation
has an ironic edge, whether the musician is aiming for an amusing
juxtaposition or is making a more pointed commentary (as when a
youthful Rollins, playing alongside Charlie Parker on Miles Davis's
Collector's Items, throws in a snippet of "Anything You Can Do I Can
Do Better," or when the avant-garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman
rebuffs a skeptical heckler at the Croydon Hall concert with a
snippet of the jazz standard "Cherokee").

A question about Jazz Quoting followed by another question from the same
poster but with no replies to either:
http://ask.metafilter.com/16149/Jazz-Quoting

Are there any books, journal articles, or magazine articles about
the phenomenon of "quoting" and other allusory / referential
techniques in jazz?

The term "quoting" is usually used to refer to a short allusion at
the beginning of an improv solo, but I'm also interested generally
with the re-incorporation of older works and styles in jazz songs.
The eventual goal is to provide some historical context for the
modern practice of sampling in rap and electronic music. I'm mainly
interested in textual sources describing the phenomenon, but if you
know of a great song Y that incorporates a piece of song X, let me
know about that, too.
Next:
Oh, also: anything about the development of the two-tiered system of
reggae authorship, where one performer comes up with the rhythm and
others straight-up use the entire rhythm in their tracks.

This thread:
http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=27646

Favorite musical quotes in solos

Does anyone have a favorite musical quotation in a solo?

Here's mine:

Artist - Masada (Dave Douglas and John Zorn soloing);
Album - Live in Jerusalem
Song - Ziphim

Zorn and Douglas are soloing together (there's an oxymoron for you),
and Zorn quote Duke Ellington's "Rockin' In Rhythm". He alters the
rhythm quite considerably, and it works perfectly. It's fantastic
how he makes the old swinging theme fit right into the
avant-klezmer. The best part though is that Dave Douglas actually
picks up on the quotation and finishes the theme where Zorn leaves
off.

To my ear, it doesn't sound planned. Even if it was, kudos to both
for making it sound spontaneous.

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Peter Young]

On 27 Sep 2012 MC <cope...@mapca.inter.net> wrote:

> You quite often hear a jazz soloist playing one tune drift off into the
> melody of another tune for a few bars, then return. They might, for
> example, be playing Night and Day, and improvise a few bars of Take The
> A Train in the middle.

> I asked a singer friend if there's a recognized term for that and she
> suggested "quoting."

> Can anyone confirm, or suggest a better alternative?

I'm pretty sure that's the term. (OT) There's a splendid solo by Paul
Desmond, played at a concert after he'd been pulled over by a traffic
cop, in which he incorporates snatches of pretty well every song to do
with police, criminals, prison and so on.

Peter.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

[Glenn Knickerbocker]

On 9/27/2012 10:14 AM, MC wrote:
> I asked a singer friend if there's a recognized term for that and she
> suggested "quoting."

When it has to do with drawing a relationship between the two pieces,
it's sometimes called interpolating.

¬R

[R H Draney]

Peter Duncanson [BrE]" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> filted:

>
>On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:14:53 -0400, MC <cope...@mapca.inter.net> wrote:
>
>>You quite often hear a jazz soloist playing one tune drift off into the
>>melody of another tune for a few bars, then return. They might, for
>>example, be playing Night and Day, and improvise a few bars of Take The
>>A Train in the middle.
>>
>>I asked a singer friend if there's a recognized term for that and she
>>suggested "quoting."
>>
>>Can anyone confirm, or suggest a better alternative?
>
>I've met "quote" used for what you've described and for similar in other
>musical genres. It seems to be an established term. I wouldn't be in the
>least surprised to find that there are colloquialisms of the jocular
>variety, perhaps "borrowing", "stealing", and [try a thesaurus].

Does this apply to the snatch of "Chopsticks" in the middle of the "Jetsons"
theme song?...or the Boccherini guitar solo in one of the Spinal Tap songs?...r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.