continues to develop through the rest of the song. Those notes frame the question and the following phrase begins the answer, which O.P.

Focus your attention on the opening 4 notes of the melody, the motive, not including the pick up note.

Tricotism contains the same elements that we find in almost all great music - be it a minimalist John Cage piece, a Bach Sonata or a Billy Strayhorn suite - motivic development and shape. Side note: When I chose this piece I hadn’t thought about the fact that Db also is the best color contrast to G the key of “Bohemia after Dark”.Īside from the fact that this can be a flashy Bass Solo, there are some key things that makes it a well written piece of music. (he shared this, although he pulled it off quite well). On the Bass, however, bringing it down just a half step takes away the spots where you have open strings that facilitate playing the melody so the veteran New York Bass player who was playing with him that night wasn’t feeling quite right about it. This brings up the point that “Tricotism” is in a not as well-worn key, especially for a Bass feature 5 Flats-whew! Years ago, I saw a somewhat well-known piano player take it down a half-step to ‘C’ just so it could be more easily played. In particular the seventh bar of the melody, where the phrase moves to ‘A7’ both harmonically and melodically really has some beautiful color. The melody also contains some tri-tone substitutions. “Tricotism” is an excellent example of a so called ‘be-bop’ style melody mostly eighth notes with a couple of well placed triplets that help move the phrases along. The version that I think most people know of is from a Lucky Thompson record I believe Lucky Thompson meets Oscar Pettiford has their first recording of it. I met Ray Brown briefly a couple of times, and on one occasion when I asked him about working on pulse, he shared that listening to Oscar Pettiford helped to give him his concept. I first heard this tune as recorded by Ray Brown on the cello, which was another of Pettiford’s groundbreaking ideas. Oscar Pettiford is known as one of the forefathers of the upright bass, but its important to focus on the fact that he is a great composer as well, an often overlooked element of his legacy. In our second installment on Oscar Pettiford, we are going to take a look at another one of his tunes, “Tricotism”, which I consider a good contrast to “Bohemia After Dark”.

Tricotism lead sheet