Hmmmm....
Work Song was one of the more straight ahead hard bop tunes. Lot's of notes, sure, but very few breaking the harmonic underpinning of the tune, which is a basic 16 bar minor blues. I suspect if you transcribed the solos and played them on electric guitar with a bit of feedback they wouldn't sound out of place. Mostly pentatonic, with some blue notes that add colour and tension/resolution, and some chord substitutions (also to add colour and tension/resolution). It's well on the funkier/bluesier end of the jazz spectrum.
For a real masterpiece in tension and resolution, you can't beat Coltrane's A Love Supreme album. He doesn't actually play that many different notes, but has huge variation in his phrasing and combination of them. It's incredibly powerful, almost visceral. Definitely not noodling! You can hear pain, passion, ecstasy in every note. Also worth thinking about in terms other than harmony/melody/rhythm - the tonal texture, for instance, the soundscape. We're used to describing Phil Spectors "wall of sound", for instance, or understanding hard rock as something that blasts you away, but similar things were happening in jazz.
I don't think you'll like it, but I dare you to listen to it all the way through (or experience it, more let it wash over you - just like an acid trip, if you try too hard to understand, control or fight it you'll have a **** time). Just the first 4 parts (the rest is just extras), a little over half an hour.
PS - yes it does grow on you. I didn't like it when I was younger, it's not particularly accessible or easy listening. Now I know almost every note by heart.
PPS - I love a bit of The Duke as well, cheers
Originally Posted by Dr Headgear - Wannabe viking
Hmmmm....
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