David Kraus: The Listening Room
A Child is Born
David Kraus ~ electric jazz guitars (overdubbed)Return to Tunes
Thad Jones is without a doubt one of my favorite trumpet players and all time favorite jazz players. But even more so, it is his composition and arranging that impress me the most. Of course I am definitely not alone in my admiration for his gifts. The tune I play here is probably his most famous. "A Child is Born" is a very sensitive song in a lilting 3/4 time with great changes to stretch out over, and I could never tire of or get enough of improvising on this song. Originally written in the key of Bbmajor, I transposed it to Gmajor in order to take advantage of the lower bass sound and lush chord voicings of the guitar which would be difficult if not impossible by playing in Bb where the open strings of the guitar can not be used with any efficiency. I revoiced the opening two chords (Gmaj7 to Cm/Gbass..one bar each three times) to Gmaj7 to Cmin13/Gbass which gives the strong impression of a Gmaj6/augmented 5th chord with a Cmin9 coloring. It also sounds as if it's a suspended kind of harmony but it's not the 4th which is suspended. I also doubled the length of the final two chords of the form (D7sus4 to D7..one bar each) and played them twice because I wanted that floating suspended sound to last just a little longer before moving back to begin again on the Gmajor7 to Cmin13/Gbass changes. I am hoping that Mr. Jones would not mind, and I hope you won't either.
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was born on March 28, 1923, and left this plane on August 21, 1986 having established himself as one of our greatest of American jazz musicians, a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Born in Pontiac, Michigan into a very musical family of ten (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones) Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen. Like many of the jazz musicians of his generation he honed his technical skills and learned his craft while he played in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943-46). After the war, continued his professional music career, eventually winding up with Count Basie in 1954, for whom he arranged, composed, and performed. He stayed with Basie for nine years. Thad achieved critical acclaim during this time, but not for his work with Basie. Much of Jones's music was stylistically original and didn't always fit in with the Basie group which he left in 1963. In the early sixties he became a free lance arranger and performer in the New York area.
In 1965 he and drummer Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. The group initially began with informal late night jam sessions amongst New York's top studio musicians. The group eventually began performing at the Village Vanguard, to wide acclaim, and continued with Jones in the lead for twelve years. In 1979 they won a Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones also taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey. In 1978 Thad suddenly moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, (to the great surprise of his New York band mates), where several other American jazz musicians had gone to live. There, he formed a new band Eclipse, composed for The Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen.
A year before his death, Jones came back to the U.S. to lead the Count Basie Orchestra but had to step down due to ill health. He returned to his home in Copenhagen for the last few months of his life. He died on August 21, 1986 after being hospitalized for months but his cause of death was not published. At the time of his death he had a six year old child, also named Thad Jones, with his wife Lis Jones. He is buried there in the Vestre Kirkegard Cemetery (Western Churchyard Cemetery). Charles Mingus called Jones “...the greatest trumpet player I've heard in this life.” There are thousands of musicians who agree with Mingus's words.
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