SOTM SOTM - September 2021 - "Doxy"

[GCinCT]

I was excited when @nigeld asked me if I would like to host September's SOTM. A little backstory, in April my wife's best friend decided we needed a dog and bought us a puppy. A dachshund/poodle mix: a doxipoo. So I eventually started working on shedding the great Sonny Rollins tune Doxy. The story is that Sonny named it after a bread spread he found in London. But my little pup likes the tune.

I'm eager to hear what the talented denizens of Cafe Saxophone do with this jazz standard. Thank you Nigel for providing the dots and backing track which you can get here. There are both high and low versions for Eb horns, choose the one that suits you best. The backing track repeats four times, so you can do head in, two choruses, head out or whatever you prefer. Here are some recordings for inspiration.

The man himself, Sonny Rollins:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLg4NnzQa7E&ab_channel=SonnyRollins-Topic


Sonny with Miles:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpueyrkcMyQ&ab_channel=60otaku4


John Coltrane:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpoRbCDHnc4&ab_channel=JohnColtrane-Topic


And here's Bob Mintzer:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUrFNtbyKI4&ab_channel=Eastman


I hope you have as much fun with it as I do. My puppy Henrik will be listening too.

 

[rhysonsax]

Great choice and I'm surprised we haven't had it before. That duet version with Bob Mintzer is great !

Sonny's tune "Doxy" is a contrafact (new melody on the same chords) of Ja-Da and has also been used as the basis of other jazz tunes such as:

Ray Brown's "FSR" (For Sonny Rollins):

View: https://youtu.be/tqD9IgLGjec


The big band tune "Lift Off" played by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra:

View: https://youtu.be/0XYDl5ZV1Sg


Looking forward to hearing what people do with this.

Rhys

 

[GCinCT]

Great choice and I'm surprised we haven't had it before. That duet version with Bob Mintzer is great !

Sonny's tune "Doxy" is a contrafact (new melody on the same chords) of Ja-Da and has also been used as the basis of other jazz tunes such as:

Ray Brown's "FSR" (For Sonny Rollins):

View: https://youtu.be/tqD9IgLGjec


The big band tune "Lift Off" played by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra:

View: https://youtu.be/0XYDl5ZV1Sg


Looking forward to hearing what people do with this.

Rhys

Thanks for the further background and the additional recordings, @rhysonsax. I love learning things like this.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Just googled doxy. 😳 I never knew. Dirty boy.

A song with no lyrics. I'll have to sing Ja da then. 😉

 

[rhysonsax]

A song with no lyrics. I'll have to sing Ja da then. 😉

Mark Murphy wrote lyrics to Doxy (here sung by Kurt Elling with Branford Marsalis):

View: https://youtu.be/X-xORT5Soyc


Or you could write your own lyrics dedicated to the Doxipoo puppy.

Rhys

 

[GCinCT]

Or you could write your own lyrics dedicated to the Doxipoo puppy.

I should do that. I wrote a tune using rhythm changes with lyrics about my cat.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Ah ah achoo. Did somebody say cat?

 

[Dr G]

Here’s my favorite recording of the tune - the whole disc is excellent.

View: https://youtu.be/Yz1hMgSysU4

 

[GCinCT]

The last couple of times I hosted a SOTM or BOTM, I didn't post. I'll start things off here with a quick version I recorded yesterday. I'll keep working and try to come up with a better one later in the month.

https://soundcloud.com/user-205889630%2Fdoxy

View: https://soundcloud.com/user-205889630/doxy

 

[mrpeebee]

Here is a very nice version by Dexter Gordon, recorded in Denmark:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpU5pdNXSxQ


Another tune on the same chords is 'Lucius Lu', here recorded by a Chet Baker group:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmXGAYtssq4


I recorded both tunes myself, will share them in another post.

 

[mrpeebee]

I did record 'Doxy' several times in the past.

Here is a version from 2013 where I tried to play like Dexter did in the clip I shared above (no change of coming close!) I played my Florida no USA 10* LInk with a La Voz reed in that time:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3JvaZT5wvw


And here is a version from 2015 with another backing (sounding a bit square at places), where I played more in my own style, trying to build up the solo from starting very simple and going to more complex/energetic in each following chorus. Played on the same mouthpiece as above clip, but with a Rico Plasticover 2 reed:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdEyLYguAKs

 

[mrpeebee]

And here is a recording of 'Lucius Lu' I did in 2013, which I used to compare two mouthpieces from my (big) vintage Otto Link collection.

Played on a 50's Otto link Florida no USA 10* (left channel, solo at 0:33) and a 70's Otto link Early Babbitt 10 (right channel, solo at 2:01) with 4x4 fours starting at 3:30. Used the same La Voz medium reed and Selmer SBA tenor as in the above 2013 Doxy recording.

https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=12492943

 

[PMason247]

I do love this song, but the chords are a bit of a tongue-twister! Any tips? and I'll give this one a go on Soprano

 

[mrpeebee]

I do love this song, but the chords are a bit of a tongue-twister! Any tips? and I'll give this one a go on Soprano

I'm not the best to answer this (I play mainly by ear and don't know much about music theory), but you don't have to always play all chords that are listed in the music sheet. Playing with only root notes from the chords through the scheme will train your ears and if you do that long enough (and listen to recordings of this tune) you will get familiar with it, which always helps.

I don't know how good your German is (otherwise use Google translate!), but they have a on a German sax forum a full thread with tips on how to play over the Doxy chords (which I never studied by the way!):

https://www.saxophonforum.de/threads/jazz-totm-november-2016-theorie-doxy.30121/

 

[PMason247]

I'm not the best to answer this (I play mainly by ear and don't know much about music theory), but you don't have to always play all chords that are listed in the music sheet. Playing with only root notes from the chords through the scheme will train your ears and if you do that long enough (and listen to recordings of this tune) you will get familiar with it, which always helps.

I don't know how good your German is (otherwise use Google translate!), but they have a on a German sax forum a full thread with tips on how to play over the Doxy chords (which I never studied by the way!):

https://www.saxophonforum.de/threads/jazz-totm-november-2016-theorie-doxy.30121/

Thanks. But unfortunalty, cant seem to access.... despite not knowing German either!

 

[PMason247]

Ah, you probably have to be a member.

I printed the first page into a PDF document, see the attachment. You can use Google to translate into English.

Many thanks!

 

[rhysonsax]

I have been trying to get used to my Conn 12M baritone which has quirky tuning for me when compared with my modern Selmer bari. Going back to an old mouthpiece seems to help intonation, and I really like the Conn's sound.

Partially inspired by the YouTube clip of Bob Mintzer playing with Chuck Israels, I recorded with just a double bass - as posted on YouTube by Mr Sunnybass but slowed slightly to the Mintzer/Israels tempo.

Doxy - Rhys bari V1 with Bass .mp3 - Box

It's hard work playing with just the bass !

Rhys

 

[guidocreo]

Setup Experiment: R&C Performance + Jody Jazz Giant.

quick and dirty:

View: https://youtu.be/Lj9jEStYBK0


Ciao.

 

[nigeld]

We have come to the end of the month, so I would like to thank @GCinCT for acting as host and to thank the contributors.
As usual, the thread will remain open, and further contributions are very welcome.

 

[wuffysax]

hello to all,

i have also found a doxy in my rich program

View: https://youtu.be/byZd1hXXf-o


hope you will like it

best regards from blackforest

Wuffy