Music Lesson

“Billy Boy” and Red Garland’s “block chords” style

By Riccardo Scivales

In 1957, jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal recorded a highly successful arrangement of the traditional song Billy Boy, currently available on the Mosaic (or Verve Reissues)  boxed set of 9 CDs: The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions 1956-62. This arrangement was so influential that shortly after its release, various other pianists recorded very similar versions clearly modelled upon Jamal’s. Among these pianists was Red Garland, whose own trio version was recorded in 1957 (on Red Garland Revisited!, Prestige Records) with Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Taylor (drums), which is the transcription we present in this issue. Garland also recorded another very similar version of Billy Boy as the piano/bass/drums trio feature piece in Miles Davis’s famous 1958 album Milestones. Garland played in Davis’s groups and participated in many of his important recordings from 1955 through 1959.

 Influenced by Jamal, Erroll Garner, Bud Powell, Nat “King” Cole and Art Tatum, William “Red” Garland (Dallas, Texas, May 13, 1923-April 23, 1984) became especially famous and influential for his trademark “block chord” technique, which was very different from earlier “block chord” stylings devised by Milt Buckner, George Shearing and Nat “King” Cole, and was slightly different from Jamal’s too. As you can see in most of our transcription of Billy Boy presented here, Garland’s innovative and distinctive “block chord” style consisted of three notes in the right hand, and four (rarely three) notes in the left, with the left hand playing around middle C and the right hand playing one octave above the left. His formula more or less follows this pattern:

1)  the right hand plays the melody in octaves with a perfect 5th always placed above the lowest note of the octave. This is a very important feature of this styling, and it should be noted that these perfect 5ths are often played in the middle of right hand octaves even when they might seem ill-suited to the underlying harmony (see bars 7, 13, and 34 of our transcription). In fact, these perfect 5ths become virtually inaudible when left hand chords are played simultaneously, but they nevertheless give these voicings a particularly rich, distinctive and slightly out-of-tune delightful character;

2) the left hand, for the most part, plays four-note (rarely three-note) “rootless chords” in exact rhythmic unison with the right hand. On this matter, it should also been noted that Garland was one of the earliest pianists to make extensive use of “rootless chords”. (Along with Gershwin, Ellington, Tatum and Garner’s pioneering examples of “synchronizing” the melody with left hand chords, “rootless chords” are discussed—with practical applications too—in my method Jazz Piano: The Left Hand, published by Ekay Music.)

 As testified by existing recordings, Garland seems to have perfected such voicing towards 1955, when he started using them extensively in his recordings with Davis. Compared to previous “block  chord” stylings, Garland’s had a brighter quality, slightly more dissonance, and more fullness in the upper register. Also, in a specific comparison with Jamal’s own Billy Boy, we can see that Garland’s “block chords” were almost exactly the same as Jamal’s, except that Jamal placed major or minor 6ths—instead of perfect 5ths—in the middle of right hand octaves.

 In the bridge of the first chorus as well as in the following improvised choruses, Garland plays in the customary bebop style, i.e. agile right hand lines in single notes, with sparse left hand “comping” chords.

 Billy Boy is perhaps Garland’s most celebrated recording and his “block chord” style has become a widely used resource in modern jazz piano. Have fun in trying it and also applying to other tunes and to your improvisations!

 Riccardo Scivales is the author of several music folios and methods (such as Jazz Piano: The Left Hand, The Right Hand According To Tatum, Echoes of Venice, etc.) published by Ekay Music and by Neil A. Kjos Music Company. He also leads his own “Mi Ritmo” (Latin) and “Quanah Parker” (Prog Rock) bands in Italy.