Transcription and Video of Anthropology head, and a word on syncopation
My bassist wanted to do this tune called Anthropology, by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, but I couldn’t find it in any of my fakebooks at home, so I have to prepare a transcription of it myself.
Here’s a video of Bud Powell’s Trio doing Anthropology.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDfdIf7Yi8M]And here’s my transcription of the head of Anthropology, together with chord progression I found on an online digital fakebook.
Anthropology-Transcription-PDF
Rhythmic syncopation is the musical element that makes jazz, jazz, as mentioned by Hal Galper in his book Forward Motion. I couldn’t help but notice how the melody in Anthropology is syncopated, how the placement of notes on the upbeats help give the tune an extra swing.
Take this bar for example. The circled notes are those placed on the upbeats of the bar.
Moral of the story?? The more syncopated your melody is, the harder you swing..
Have fun and enjoy.. 🙂
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2 Comments
Mike McCoy
January 10, 2008Good job, but not quite correct…for example per the Real Book version, there are 8 eighth notes in the first bar. Your third note, the quarter note C should be C for an eighth of a beat, followed by a B for an eighth of a beat….there are other errors as well.
At a fast tempo, only someone who really knows the tune would catch the mistakes, but it’s worth learning…check out Art Pepper’s version to really hear the enunciation.
rewsnat
January 10, 2008I am aware of the difference of my transcription when compared to some fake books. But what I write is what I hear, and there are so many different version of the head of this tune I’ve heard. Sometimes even the fake books disagree among themselves.
Thanx for your comment anyway.. deeply appreciated. 🙂
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