Transcription: Frankie Dunlop — Green Chimneys / Rouse’s solo

Here’s a little bit of Frankie Dunlop’s playing during the two choruses of Charlie Rouse’s solo, on Green Chimneys, from Thelonious Monk’s album Straight, No Chaser. It’s a good lesson in comping, and in playing the bass drum in a bop setting.

Here Dunlop “feathers”the bass drum quite a bit— plays it lightly as part of his time feel. At times he plays half notes, or quarter notes, or doesn’t play it audibly at all; in a couple of places he’ll play it lightly on 2 and 4. He creates some pretty subtle gradations of intensity this way, within the overall mf, moderate-intensity vibe of the solo. It wouldn’t be a bad exercise to play the transcription along with the recording, playing only the cymbal, bass drum, and hihat.

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The transcription begins at 1:49 in the recording, and ends at the beginning of Monk’s solo: